Youngsters Elaine Genovese and Matthew Asciak were the Maltese heroes on day one of the tennis competition as they won their opening singles matches.

Genovese won on her debut at these Games beating Monaco’s LA Gambarini in two straight sets to advance to the quarter-finals.

Asciak has now advanced to the quarter-finals where he will be playing against Arnar Sigursson of Iceland.

In another match, Matija Pecotic was eliminated in the men’s singles. Pecotic lost to Petros Baghdatis of Cyprus.

Pecotic was the first Maltese in action at the fabulous Monaco Tennis and Country Club. He played against Petros Baghdatis, brother of the Cypriot star, who was eliminated from the French Open on Monday.

The Cypriot player registered a 6-4 6-0 victory over an erratic Pecotic who committed a good number of unforced errors, giving his opponent a big helping hand.

In the first set, Pecotic was in the match until Baghdatis obtained the break he needed to clinch it 6-4. In the second set, Pecotic appeared to be demoralised, hitting so many bad balls that the Cypriot must have been surprised with the ease with which he won the match.

Elaine Genovese then faced LA Gambarini of Monaco and was clearly in top form as she raced to a 6-1 6-1 victory in just over 50 minutes.

Elaine produced some impressive shots as she completely destroyed her opponent, allowing her only two games and just a few points during the match.

She now meets the No. 1 seed in this tournament, Stephanie Vogt of Liechtenstein who is also world ranked in the top 800.

Coach Ray Tarpey was very satisfied with her performance. “That is how I like my players to perform. She was excellent all the way and never gave her opponent a chance,” he said.

Elaine said after her victory: “It was a good debut for me in these Games. I felt confident right from the start and there was only one brief moment, in the second set, when she could have won a game which might have brought her back in contention. But I survived that moment and grew in confidence, going on to win quite comfortably.”

Tarpey also commented on Pecotic’s defeat. “I expected more of my player. He was very erratic and gave away a lot of points. I think he should have won against Baghdatis. Matija committed so many errors that it seemed as if he was telling his opponent to win. And Baghdatis obliged. I can say that against his next opponent, he will not win much points, possibly two in all,” he said.

Tarpey added: “I am certainly disappointed with his performance. His defeat is perhaps the result of lack of proper preparation. He only trains with us three times a week. It was perhaps because of the exams, it might have been that he did not follow instructions rigorously while training individually. One thing is certain, however. And that is that Baghdatis is a beatable player and Matija should have won this match.”

Lisa Camenzuli, who will be returning to action after a long absence through injury, has received a bye. In the quarter-finals, she will be meeting Sina Marina Novak of Andorra.