Fifth-seeded Francesca Schiavone of Italy easily downed countrywoman Mara Santangelo 6-2, 6-0 Tuesday to earn a place in the second round of the US$170,000 Gaz de France Stars.
The other two seeds in action, sixth-seeded Silvia Farina Elia of Italy and seventh-seeded Magdalena Maleeva of Bulgaria, also won.
PHOTO: AP
Former world No. 1 Kim Clijsters is set to make her comeback from a five-month injury layoff Wednesday after receiving a first round bye in the tournament, which is being held near her hometown in eastern Belgium.
Clijsters is seeded second behind US Open finalist Elena Dementieva of Russia, who also starts on Wednesday. Clijsters will face Benesova, while Dementieva takes on Pastikova.
Clijsters has been off the circuit since May when a wrist injury forced her to withdraw from the German Open in Berlin. She needed surgery to repair a torn tendon and failed to be fit in time for the US Open.
The layoff has seen the Belgian's ranking fall to seventh, after she reached No. 1 in August last year.
Palermo
Italy's top player Filippo Volandri cruised past Albert Montanes of Spain 6-2, 6-3 in the Campionati Internazionali di Sicilia in Palermo, Sicily.
Fifth-seeded Volandri, who won his first ATP title at St. Poelten in May, beat Montanes in Bucharest's first round two weeks ago.
Sixth-seeded Rafael Nadal, fresh from leading Spain into the Davis Cup final last weekend, beat countryman Nicolas Almagro 6-1, 7-5.
The other two seeds in action also advanced in the year's final ATP event on clay.
No. 4 Nikolay Davydenko of Russia ousted Victor Hanescu of Romania 6-2, 7-5, while No. 7 David Ferrer defeated Spanish countryman Alberto Martin 2-6, 6-1, 6-4.
Qualifier Alessio Di Mauro couldn't clinch an all-Italian second-round match against Volandri when he lost to Spain's Galo Blanco 2-6, 6-2, 6-2.
However, Italian wild card Andreas Seppi defeated 1999 champion Arnaud Di Pasquale of France 6-7 (2), 6-2, 6-4, and drew in the second round Kristof Vliegen of Belgium, who easily beat Argentine qualifier Mariano Puerta 6-1, 6-2.
Korean Open
Samantha Stosur of Australia cruised past Russia's Galina Voskoboeva 6-2, 6-4 Tuesday to reach the quarterfinals.
Stosur will next face the winner of the second-round bout between Japan's Miho Saeki and Wimbledon champion Maria Sharapova.
Saeki and Sharapova did not play on Wednesday when five of the eight quarterfinalists were decided, including American Abigail Spears, who beat second-seeded Shinobu Asagoe of Japan 6-3, 1-6, 6-3.
Sanda Mamic of Croatia earned a close fought 7-5, 6-4 win over Catalina Castano of Colombia, while fellow Croatian Silvija Talaja rallied to beat Japan's Yuka Yoshida 4-6, 6-3, 6-0.
Poland's Marta Domachowska defeated Chuang Chia-jung of Taiwan 7-5, 6-1. She will face Talaja in the quarterfinals.
Shanghai Open
Jiri Novak's luck continued Wednesday as he advanced to the second round of the ATP Shanghai Open on an easy day for the remaining top seeds.
The second-seeded Czech barely broke as he deftly eliminated Taiwan's Lu Yen-hsun, 6-2, 6-2.
Lanky Finn Jarkko Nieminen, the tournament's sixth seed, had a tougher time, going three sets against Germany's Bjorn Phau before bagging the 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 win.
Top seed Juan Carlos Ferrera canceled his appearance at the US$380,000 tournament due to injury and fourth seeded Philippoussis saw his woeful season continue when he was ousted on Tuesday by unheralded American Glenn Weiner.
Janko Tipsarevic of Serbia-Montenegro, defeated Jon Van Lottum of the Netherlands.
Thailand Open
Former world No 1 Marat Safin stormed into the second round yesterday with a confident 6-2, 6-3 win over Israel's Noam Okun.
Only three days after spearheading Russia to a 5-0 Davis Cup whitewash of Thailand in Moscow, the third-seeded Safin used his powerful backcourt game to beat Okun in just 66 minutes at Impact Arena.
Safin kept the pressure on Okun the entire match and sealed the first set with a 180kph ace.
The Russian dominated the second set with his superior groundstrokes and got an early break in the first game to lead 4-2. Despite a spirited defense, Safin punished Okun's serve to take the match.
The Czech Republic's Jiri Vanek rallied from a slow start to beat Danai Udomchoke of Thailand 3-6, 7-5, 6-2. No. 8 Robin Soderling of Sweden advanced in comfortable fashion, beating Israel's Harel Levy 6-3, 6-4, while Chile's Adrian Garcia beat Satoshi Iwabuchi of Japan 7-6 (5), 6-3.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier