NÜRNBERG, Germany – No.3 seed Annika Beck made a confident start to her NÜRNBERGER VERSICHERUNGSCUP challenge, defeating Teliana Pereira in their rain-affected first-round encounter on Monday.

It has been a difficult clay court season for Beck, who arrived in southern Germany on the back of first-round exits in Rabat, Madrid and Rome. However, spurred on by a partisan crowd, she came raring out of the traps before withstanding a late fightback to triumph, 6-0, 6-4.

“I think overall it was a very tough match,” Beck said. “I felt good because it’s kind of my home tournament and I used the atmosphere to help me and at the end I needed this because it was hard and a lot of fighting.”

Having breezed through the opening set, Beck’s progress was halted temporarily by an hour-long rain delay. “It’s never easy to have a rain delay in between as you have to be ready all the time. You change, you cool down a bit and just try and stay focused for when you go back on court.”

Also clearing the opening hurdle was Beck’s fellow German and No.7 seed Anna-Lena Friedsam. Constant drizzle ensured conditions were far from ideal throughout the match, but Friedsam maintained her focus to run out a 6-3, 6-4 winner over Johanna Larsson.

“I played really well today. It was not easy conditions with the rain and the cold but I managed it really well,” Friedsam said. “I tried to focus on my strengths and put her under pressure.

“It’s not nice to play in this rain and cold, but I tried not to think about it, focus on my plan and this worked really well today.”

Dampening the home crowd’s spirits somewhat were defeats for Katharina Hobgarski and Tatjana Maria.

Playing her first WTA main draw match, wildcard Hobgarski received a baptism of fire, losing 6-0, 6-3  to Varvara Lepchenko, while Maria lost to fellow qualifier Kiki Bertens 6-1, 7-6(0).