Seeds Riske of US and Goerges of Germany win at Nuremberg

NUREMBERG, Germany (AP) Fifth-seeded Alison Riske of the U.S. began her Nuremberg Cup campaign defeating Elise Mertens 6-4, 4-6, 6-3 in the first round on Monday.

Riske next plays another Belgian, Kirsten Flipkens, who had already defeated Ajla Tomljanovic of Croatia at the clay-court tournament.

The sixth-seeded Julia Goerges got her third win against Nao Hibino of Japan, 7-5, 6-1, and fellow German Tatjana Maria, a wild card, had little difficulty against 18-year-old qualifier Marie Bouzkova of the Czech Republic, winning 6-0, 6-1.

Czech qualifier Barbora Krejcikova, and Japan's Misaki Doi also advanced.

Third-seeded Shuai Zhang was playing Oceane Dodin of France later.