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Portuguese teen pips US veteran

Michelle Larcher de Brito of Portugal reacts after defeating Meghann Shaughnessy of the US in the first round of the Sony Ericsson Open at the Tennis Center at Crandon Park in Miami, Florida, on Wednesday. PHOTO: AFP

Portuguese teen phenom Michelle Larcher de Brito booked a shot at Slovakian 16th seed Daniela Hantuchova with a first-round victory at the US$6.9 million Sony Ericsson Open on Wednesday.

The first Portuguese player in the main draw of an elite WTA tier one event, Larcher de Brito shrugged off rain delays to beat US veteran Meghann Shaughnessy 6-3, 2-6, 7-6 (7/3).

A product of the Bollettieri Tennis Academy in Bradenton, Florida, Brito is ranked 64th in juniors, the only player in the top 200 born in 1993. She was able to rally against Shaughnessy, who is nearly twice her age and has five career WTA Tour titles.

The youngster's reward is a match with Hantuchova, who ended a five-year victory drought last week by winning at Indian Wells.

American Vania King earned a second-round match with second-seeded Belgian Justine Henin with a 7-6 (7/4), 7-5 victory over China's Sun Tiantian.

Henin skipped the Australian Open for personal reasons but has since won tournaments in Doha and Dubai.

Belgian Kim Clijsters, the fourth seed, will face Japan's Akiko Morigami, who who eliminated Canadian wild card Aleksandra Wozniak 6-1, 7-5.

Russian Maria Sharapova is the top seed, and will be trying to bounce back from a disappointing fourth-round exit at Indian Wells.

Defending champion Svetlana Kuznetsova of Russia is seeded, third, while Serena Williams, playing for the first time since she trounced Sharapova in the Australian Open final, is seeded 13th.

Like Sharapova, men's top seed Roger Federer is coming off an upset loss and should be on the defensive when he meets either Igor Andreev of Russia or American wild card Sam Querrey.

Federer took a staggering 41-match winning streak into Indian Wells but was unceremoniously dismissed in straight sets in his first match by Guillermo Canas of Argentina.

Canas returned from a 15-month drug suspension in September and has been playing his way back into form. He had to qualify for the main draw of this hardcourt event and will meet Britain's Tim Henman in the first round.

Defending champion Federer could meet Canas again in the round of 16.

The second seed is Rafael Nadal of Spain, who capitalized on Federer's absence to storm to victory in the California desert.

Nadal's first match will be against Brazil's Ricardo Mello, who defeated Jan Hernych of the Czech Republic 6-1, 7-6 (7/3) on Wednesday.

Roddick is seeded third and will play Martin Vassallo Arguello of Argentina, who eased past Hyung-Taik Lee of Korea, 6-4, 6-2.

ATP ends experiment

This season's ill-starred experiment with a round-robin format was killed off on Wednesday by the ATP, with the traditional knock-out format returning to all events.

Since starting in the first week of the year in Adelaide, only five events were played under the group plan, with confusion a common factor during all tournament weeks.
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