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Romanian-Ukrainian duo Raluca Olaru/Nadiia Kichenok advanced to the second round of the women's doubles event at the French Open tennis tournament defeating Lyudmyla Kichenok (Ukraine) / Arina Rodionova (Australia), 6-1 5-7 6-4, on Wednesday in Paris.
Olaru and Nadiia Kichenok prevailed in two hours and 14 minutes over Nadiia's twin sister tea,med up with Russian-born player Arina Rodionova.
The success of the Romanian-Ukrainian duo came despite a large number of double faults 16 to Lyudmyla and Arina's only four.
Olaru and Kichenok won 17,250 euros and 130 WTA doubles points for their Roland Garros performance.
In the next round, Olaru and Kichenok will play the winning duo between French Clara Burel/Chloe Paquet versus Miyu Kato (Japan)/Renata Voracova (Czech Republic).
Also on Wednesday, Romanian Andreea Mitu and Kazakh Iulia Putintseva beat Alicja Rosolska (Poland)/ CoCo Vandeweghe (US) in the first round, 3-6 6-3 6-2.
Other first round doubles fixture featuring Romanian players are Irina Begu/Nadia Podoroska (Argentine) versus French Estelle Cascino/Jessika Ponchet; Mihaela Buzarnescu/Patricia Tig versus Lara Arruabarrena (Spain)/Caroline Dolehide (USA), and Monica Niculescu/Jelena Ostapenko (Latvia) versus Marta Kostyuk (Ukraine)/Aleksandra Sasnovich (Belarus).
