Eleni Daniilidou beat Tathiana Garbin 6-3, 4-6, 6-1 on Wednesday, the opening day of the NASDAQ-100 when all the seeds had the afternoon off.
Vera Douchevina of Russia defeated Frenchwoman Emilie Loit 6-3, 6-3 in other women's play and the US' Marissa Irvin eliminated Spaniard Magui Serna 6-3, 7-5. Douchevina will next face Serena Williams, who is seeking her fourth consecutive Key Biscayne title.
Nicole Pratt of Australia defeated Thailand's Tamarine Tanasugarn 6-3, 6-2, while Meghann Shaughnessy of the US downed Ukraine's Yuliana Fedak 6-3, 6-0.
Daniilidou will next face No 2 seed Maria Sharapova, who like many of the top players at the US$3.1 million event, enjoyed the time off.
Sharapova spent her time on Wednesday morning sitting in a chair in the hazy sunshine, yawning and stretching.
All seeded entrants received an opening-round bye in the 12-day event.
In men's play, 2003 French Open champion Juan Carlos Ferrero of Spain beat the US' Brendan Evans 6-2, 6-4. Robby Ginepri of the US swept Italy's Filippo Volandri 7-6 (4), 6-1 and James Blake of the US beat Kenneth Carlsen of Denmark 6-3, 6-2.
Fernando Verdasco of Spain defeated Dutchman Peter Wessels 6-4, 7-5 and will next face defending champion Andy Roddick. Iraki Labadze of Georgia beat Morocco's Younes El Aynaoui 6-4, 1-6, 6-1 and will play No. 3-seeded Marat Safin in the second round.
Sharapova lost 6-0, 6-0 to Lindsay Davenport in the semifinals of the Pacific Life Open last week. It was an astounding drubbing for the reigning Wimbledon champion, who won just 23 points while committing 25 unforced errors.
"That's just part of our sport. You're not going to be at your best all the time," the 17-year-old Sharapova said. "I didn't really find a way to fight out there. Usually I find a way to get a rhythm in the match, and I wasn't able to do that. It was good for me to take a few days off and forget about it."
Sharapova enters the tournament with a record of 17-2 this year. Her only other loss came in the semifinals of the Australian Open, when she failed to convert three match points against Williams.
"Whether I have three match points or it's 6-0, 6-0, it's a loss," Sharapova said. "I'm not going to win every single match in my career, but losses really motivate me."
She needs to reach the semifinals next week to have a chance at a rematch with Williams. They met for the first time a year ago at Key Biscayne, and Williams beat Sharapova 6-4, 6-3.
"That was a whole year ago," Sharapova said. "I learned a lot, and it definitely helped me."
Less than four months later, Sharapova upset Williams in the Wimbledon final. The Russian won again when they played in the final of the year-ending WTA Championships.
Kylian Mbappe struck from the penalty spot as Real Madrid beat a dogged CA Osasuna 1-0 on Tuesday to make a winning start in Spanish La Liga under new coach Xabi Alonso. The France striker, last season’s European Golden Shoe winner, scored early in the second half, after he was fouled in the area by Osasuna defender Juan Cruz. It was enough to seal the points in Alonso’s first game in charge at the Santiago Bernabeu, with Madrid now unbeaten in their opening fixture of a league campaign since 2008. “You can see that Kylian wants to do even more
TO THE TOP: After securing the international title on Saturday, Team Taiwan were to face Las Vegas to potentially win their 18th Little League World Series championship A team from Taipei’s Dong Yuan Elementary School won the Little League Baseball World Series’ international title on Saturday by defeating Aruba 1-0 in the annual baseball tournament held in South Williamsport, Pennsylvania. The Taiwan team, competing under the name Chinese Taipei, were after press time last night to face a team from Las Vegas, Nevada, which beat a team from Fairfield, Connecticut, in the US championship 8-2. Taiwan are seeking to win their first Little League Baseball World Series title since 1996. “Really haven’t taken a moment to data dump right now on Taiwan,” Nevada manager T.J. Fescher said. “They’re a
‘CATASTROPHE’: Despite losing several key forwards in the summer transfer window, Bayern were up 3-0 in the first half before Harry Kane scored a hat-trick in the second Harry Kane hit a hat-trick, Michael Olise a double and newcomer Luis Diaz also scored as Bayern Munich made a “statement” against RB Leipzig 6-0 at home in the Bundesliga season opener on Friday. Bayern’s big-money arrivals, all brought in from the Premier League across the past three seasons, were dominant as the Bavarians begun their title defense in style. Olise scored twice in the first half, either side of a Diaz strike. Not to be outdone, Kane scored three goals in the second half — with two assists coming from Diaz, to bring Bayern’s total to 6-0. Kane told the Bundesliga
Kevin de Bruyne is to lead SSC Napoli’s Serie A title defense today when he makes his full debut at promoted US Sassuolo, but the champions head into the new season rocked by a long-term injury to star striker Romelu Lukaku. De Bruyne was, alongside aging icon Luka Modric, the big new name to arrive in Italy this summer and fans were hoping his linkup with Belgium teammate Lukaku would push Napoli to success both at home and in their return to the UEFA Champions League. The 34-year-old has suffered from hamstring injuries which caused him to miss significant chunks of the
RSS