A year that began with promise and later was plagued by some bad luck appeared to be back on the upswing for Hungarian veteran Greta Arn following her easy first round victory at the Grand Prix de SAR La Princesse Lalla Meryem.
Arn won her second career title at Auckland to kick off 2011, lost her opener at the Australian Open, reached the quarters in Acapulco and Monterrey and then was forced to retire in the first set of her first round match in Indian Wells with a left knee injury. Still showing some ill effects from the injury, she again lost her opener in Miami, yet still managed to reach her career-high of No.50 on the next rankings.
"I was practicing for three weeks at home in Rome. The first week I had to be very careful because my knee was hurting a little bit," Arn said. "Unfortunately I couldn't play in Marbella because the knee wasn't 100% but now it looks like it's fine, thank God!"
Currently ranked No.52 and seeded fourth here, Arn appeared healthy and in good form on Monday, taking a 60 10 lead on Patricia Mayr-Achleitner before the Austrian retired with a right shoulder injury.
"First rounds are never easy, plus I had never played against her. I kind of had an idea of how she played, but it's still different when you actually play the match," said Arn, who is now 7-2 here, highlighted by a semifinal showing in 2008. "I'm just happy to be in the second round now!"
