Washington steps into gear

American wild card Mashona Washington stunned compatriot Meghann Shaughnessy 6-4 6-4 in the New Haven first round on Monday, a day of upsets, following unseeded Croatian Jelena Kostanic 3-6 6-4 6-4 result over sixth-seed Magdalena Maleeva of Bulgaria.

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Washington, who has enjoyed the majority of her success on the ITF Challenger tour, broke Shaughnessy once in each set.

"I was just trying to execute, to keep the ball in play," Washington said afterwards.

Meanwhile, Shaughnessy commented she had yet to find her back after not competing for a few weeks.

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"The key thing for (Washington) tonight was her serve," Shaughnessy said.

"She didn't give me many opportunities to break, and that was the difference in the match."

Other first round winners on Monday, were, fifth seed Nadia Petrova, eighth seed Nathalie Dechy, Lisa Raymond and two qualifiers Marta Marrero and Akiko Morigami.

Raymond, who took a last-minute wild card to the event after playing singles and doubles at the Olympics, knocked out Russian Dinara Safina 6-1 3-6 6-2.

Raymond stole control of the net throughout the match, and took full advantage of two double faults late in the third set.

"It's a match I knew I could win. It was a match I knew would come down to a point here and there," Raymond said.

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