TORONTO - Galina Voskoboeva started a trend of upsets on the first day of the women's main draw at the Rogers Cup.
The qualifier from Kazakhstan eliminated No. 9 seed Marion Bartoli of France 6-3, 6-3 in first-round action Monday just hours before 19-year-old Romanian Simona Halep rallied to take out 12th-seeded Svetlana Kuznetsova of Russia 4-6, 6-4, 6-3.
Germany's Julia Goerges followed suit by easily dispatching No. 15 seed Jelena Jankovic with a 6-1, 6-3 victory in a evening match.
Voskoboeva said going up against a top-10 seed didn't intimidate her.
"I'm pretty confident right now," she said. "I was not that nervous, you know, against who I was playing, so I just knew that I can play good and that's it."
The Canadian contingent at this year's tournament lost a member when Rebecca Marino bowed out against Ekaterina Makarova in a tight battle. The 20-year-old from Vancouver was defeated 7-6 (8), 6-4, by the Russian, leaving only three Canadians remaining in the singles draw.
"I didn't come out winning, but I think I did a really good showing for my first time," Marino said.
Kuznetsova made 50 unforced errors to lose control of the match and send Halep to the second round in the young qualifier's Rogers Cup debut.
The 55th-ranked Halep, who advanced to the main draw after defeating Toronto's Sharon Fichman in final-round qualifying Sunday, rebounded after dropping the opening set to stun the 15th-ranked Kuznetsova.
The 26-year-old Voskoboeva is ranked 135th in the world and came into the match fresh off a semifinals appearance at the inaugural Baku Cup in Azerbaijan. Her career-best ranking was No. 64 in February 2009.
Bartoli, meanwhile, struggled with her serve, giving away four double-fault points, while Voskoboeva capitalized on her opportunities by winning four of her six break points.
"It was a day when nothing was working," Bartoli said. "I tried my hardest but I committed so many mistakes it was hard to win. I was not feeling the ball and my legs were not moving. I was late on everything and committing a lot mistakes, especially on my backhand."
Bartoli was making her eighth visit to the Rogers Cup and first since a similar first-round defeat in 2009 when she lost as the 13th seed to Ukraine's Alona Bondarenko.
"Something is not going well for me here in Toronto," Bartoli said. "I don't know if it is the surface or the humidity or something, but it's been a two-year gap and it's the same kind of match."
Goerges sailed through the first set against the former No. 1 with overpowering forehand winners from the baseline and an aggressive first serve.
It was the first match since Wimbledon for Jankovic and the Serbian certainly showed her rust.
"Obviously I had a hard time playing my first match since June," she said. "I wasn't feeling my game out there and hopefully with more matches I'll be better in my next tournament."
Defending champion Caroline Wozniaki, who starts her title defence in the second round, noted the field is wide open in women's tennis these days, with a new face winning each of this year's Grand Slams so far. That means even superstars like her need to be on their best in the early rounds.
"I think there's a lot of good players out there and depending on the day you can win against anyone," said the top-seeded Dane. "It's about being consistent and thinking positive out there on the court and doing you're best."
Third-seed Vera Zvonareva said the lack of a dominant player in the women's game right now means each event is impossible to predict.
"It's a very tough challenge right now as women's tennis is at a very high level and you can't have any predictions," Zvonareva said. "Anyone can win and it's very tough competition."
Marino was bolstered by a crowd of flag-waving supporters as she and Makarova covered the court with long rallies. Marino came back from 5-0 in the first set tiebreaker to make it 6-6 before eventually giving in to the 23-year-old from Moscow.
"I wanted to show some tenacity and fight and I think I did that," said Marino. "I blew (the tiebreaker) but that's in the past and I can't fix it, I just have to look at it as things to learn from."
The second set was equally close with both players hitting the ball tentatively and taking few chances. With Marino down 5-4 and serving, the two went back and forth until Marakova finally won on her fourth match point.
It was Marino's first appearance in the Rogers Cup main draw after three separate attempts in qualifying.
The Canadians still scheduled for first-round matches include Aleksandra Wozniak of Blainville, Que., Stephanie Dubois of Laval, Que., and Eugenie Bouchard of Westmount, Que.
Earlier on Monday, Samantha Stosur opened on centre court at the Rexall Centre with a 4-6, 6-2, 6-3 victory over Japan's Ayumi Morita.
The 10th-seeded Australian was making her second appearance at the tournament after reaching the quarter-finals in 2009.
Stosur will meet the winner of Tuesday's match between Wozniak and Shahar Peer of Israel.
In other singles action: China's Jie Zheng defeated Italy's Alberta Brianti 6-2, 6-1; the Czech Republic's Lucie Safarova downed Slovakia's Polona Hercog 6-3, 4-6, 6-3; Russia's Nadia Patrova ousted Australia's Jarmila Gajdosova 6-1, 6-2; and Hungary's Greta Arn upended the Czech Republic's Klara Zakopalova 6-3, 6-1.
Fichman and Marie-Eve Pelletier of Repentigny, Que., made an early exit in the doubles tournament. The Canadian duo lost their first-round match to Poland's Alicja Rosolska and Klaudia Jans-Ignacik, 7-5, 7-5.
"You know sometimes you try your best with everything you can, and it just doesn't seem to be going your way," Pelletier said. "Just didn't seem like anything was going to fall our way. So we tried our best, but unfortunately it wasn't meant to be."
