Top seed Andrea Petkovic has suffered an injury scare ahead of the French Open after pulling out of the Nurnberger Versicherungscup during her first-round match against Yulia Putintseva.

Petkovic went into the tournament in her homeland aiming to make up for the disappointment of being a beaten finalist in 2013, but those hopes were dashed by a thigh problem on Monday.

The world number 10, who withdrew from the Madrid Open earlier this month due to illness, trailed 5-0 in the first set when she retired and it remains to be seen if she will recover in time for the second Grand Slam of the year at Roland Garros - which starts on Sunday.

Qualifier Putintseva had dominated in the 36 minutes of play before the game was brought to a premature end and can now look forward to a second-round meeting with Kiki Bertens, who beat Yaroslava Shvedova 6-1 6-3.

Petkovic's German compatriot Angelique Kerber progressed to the second round of the WTA International clay-court event by beating Rebecca Peterson 7-5 6-4.

Kerber and Swedish qualifier Peterson had never come up against each other before, but there was no element of surprise for the second seed as she claimed six breaks to advance.

It was not all plain sailing for the Bremen-born world number 11, who found herself 2-0 down in the first set before winning the next four games and, though Peterson claimed another first-set break, Kerber eventually came out on top.

Kerber then claimed three breaks to two in the second to set up a clash with Klara Koukalova, who beat Annika Beck 6-4 7-6 (8-6).

Sabine Lisicki is another contender to claim a popular win on home soil after the third seed got the better of Silvia Soler-Espinosa 6-4 7-5 in the first round.

Fifth seed Anna Karolina Schmiedlova made a surprise exit as she was beaten 6-2 6-1 by qualifier Misaki Doi, while Carina Witthoeft, seeded eight, overcame a scare to knock out Alison Van Uytvanck.

Stefanie Voegele, Lara Arruabarrena, Anna-Lena Friedsam and Tereza Smitkova were also first-round winners on Monday.