Kirilenko takes out 2009 New Haven finalist in first round.

Elena Vesnina lost to Russian Maria Kirilenko 6-1, 3-6, 6-1 Tuesday in the first round of the Pilot Pen tennis tournament, a year after making it to the finals.

Despite her runner-up status, Vesnina had to go through qualifying to get into the tournament, arriving from Montreal on Saturday just two hours before her first match. She played and won three matches over the weekend to earn her way into this year's main draw.

Kirilenko said both players had trouble with the strong winds that swirled through the stadium court, and she switched rackets after losing her feel for the ball in the second set.

"I started to make a lot of double faults, and my serve didn't work at all," she said. "In the third set, my serve started to feel better."

On the grandstand court, Marion Bartoli of France needed three sets to get by Alona Bondarenko 6-7 (4), 7-6 (2), 6-3. Bartoli said the wind, which was gusting at times over 20 mph, didn't allow her to be as aggressive as she would have liked.

"I was aiming in the middle and my ball was ending up 10 centimetres from the baseline or from the right or left line," she said.

Ffifth-seeded Yanina Wickmayer, of Belgium, succumbed to Swiss Timea Bacsinszky 6-3, 6-1 at the Connecticut Tennis Center at Yale.

Seventh-seeded Italian Flavia Pennetta reached the second round with a 6-4, 6-4 decision against Russian Alisa Kleybanova.

Wozniacki, this week's top seed, is the two-time reigning New Haven champ and fresh off her title in Montreal on Monday.

The 2010 Pilot Pen champion will collect $98,500.