China's Peng Shuai (
Peng was joined in the last 16 by Slovenian seventh seed Katarina Srebotnik, the only ranked player in action on the opening day, who recorded a routine 6-3, 6-4 victory over Russia's Olga Poutchkova.
The 21-year-old Peng played corner-to-corner against the taller Bovina, frequently wrong-footing her opponent into errors with an intelligent and aggressive game honed by her new coach, former world No. 2 Michael Chang (張德培).
PHOTO: AFP
"It's just a good way to start," Peng told reporters. "She hits hard, so I tried to hit hard first. She is a big girl, so I tried to move the ball around."
At world No. 62, Peng is China's second-ranked player and is making a comeback after suffering a serious ankle injury in early May.
"I'm feeling much better," she said. "I'm trying to learn what my real game is and Michael is helping me with that. He was a real fighter and I would like to be like that, too."
PHOTO: AFP
Srebotnik was upset in the first round of two previous tournaments in which she was seeded eighth or higher. The 25th-ranked Srebotnik reached the third round of all three Grand Slam events this year. Poutchkova lost her fifth straight.
Eleni Daniilidou of Greece outlasted Amber Liu of the US 4-6, 7-5, 6-1, in a later match that lasted more than two hours.
"Amber was getting a little tired and I was way more aggressive than her beginning in the second set," the 41st-ranked Daniilidou said. "I really couldn't see in the first set; there were shadows on the court."
Daniilidou plays top-seeded Russian Anna Chakvetadze in the second round tomorrow.
In other matches, Meilen Tu of the US beat Meghann Shaughnessy, 7-6 (3), 6-1 to reach the second round for the 11th time in 13 tournaments, and Lilia Osterloh beat fellow US player Jill Craybas 6-2, 7-5.
Osterloh advances to meet second-seeded Marion Bartoli, while Peng meets third-seeded Daniela Hantuchova.
Davydenko makes early exit
Gilles Simon of France held on to upset world No. 4 Nikolay Davydenko 6-2, 2-6, 6-3 in their Croatia Open first-round match on Monday.
Simon led 5-0 in the final set, but Davydenko saved four match points to rally to 5-3. The Russian had eight break points in the next game, but Simon held serve for the best win of his career.
It was Davydenko's third defeat in a row in the first round in as many weeks.
Top-seeded Novak Djokovic of Serbia scored his 100th victory by beating qualifier Pablo Andujar of Spain 6-1, 6-3 in his first match on clay since the French Open semi-finals.
In the second round, Djokovic -- who retired with a finger blister in the semi-finals at Wimbledon -- will meet either Viktor Troicki of Serbia or Predrag Rusevski of Macedonia.
Also moving to the second round were Carlos Berlocq of Argentina, defeating countryman Maximo Gonzalez 6-3, 6-4; Marin Cilic of Croatia, who beat Mathieu Montcourt of France 3-6, 6-4, 6-1; Pere Riba of Spain, defeating Luka Belic of Croatia 6-2, 2-6, 6-4, and Ruben Ramirez Hidalgo of Spain, who defeated Gaston Gaudio of Argentina 6-0, 6-4.
Querrey snaps losing streak
Struggling US player Sam Querrey snapped a seven-match losing streak here on Monday on the opening day of the US$525,000 ATP Indianapolis Championships.
The 91st-ranked Californian thrashed 60th-ranked Frenchman Julien Benneteau 7-6 (8/6), 6-1 in just under 90 minutes for his first victory on clay since April 29.
Querrey was desperate to turn his luck after losing to top-10 stars Tommy Haas and James Blake during his sad spring but crashed out against qualifiers in the first round of the French Open and Wimbledon.
Russian teen Evgueni Korolev put out the US' Justin Gimelstob 6-2, 6-4.
A sumo star was born in Japan on Sunday when 24-year-old Takerufuji became the first wrestler in 110 years to win a top-division tournament on his debut, triumphing at the 15-day Spring Grand Sumo Tournament in Osaka despite injuring his ankle on the penultimate day. Takerufuji, whose injury had left him in a wheelchair outside the ring, shoved out the higher-ranked Gonoyama at the Edion Arena Osaka to the delight of the crowd, giving him an unassailable record of 13 wins and two losses to claim the Emperor’s Cup. “I did it just through willpower. I didn’t really know what was going
The US’ Ilia Malinin on Saturday produced six scintillating quadruple jumps, including a quadruple Axel, in the men’s free skate to capture his first figure skating world title. The 19-year-old nicknamed the “Quad god,” who is the only skater to land a quadruple Axel in competition, dazzled with an array of breathtakingly executed jumps starting with his quad Axel and including a quadruple Lutz in combination with a triple flip and a quadruple toe loop in combination with a triple toe. He added an unexpected triple-triple combination at the end to earn a world-record 227.79 in the free program for a championship
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HSIEH MAKES QUARTERS: Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei and Elise Mertens of Belgium won in the women’s doubles and face Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Sofia Kenin of the US Top-ranked Iga Swiatek and US Open champion Coco Gauff were knocked out of the women’s singles at the Miami Open on Monday, while Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei advanced in the women’s doubles. Swiatek lost to Ekaterina Alexandrova 6-4, 6-2, hours after third seed Gauff fell in three sets to No. 23 Caroline Garcia 6-3, 1-6, 6-2. Alexandrova beat a top-ranked player for the first time and advanced to face Jessica Pegula, a 7-6 (7/1), 6-3 winner over Emma Navarro, in the quarter-finals. Alexandrova recorded her second win over Swiatek, following a 2021 victory in Melbourne. Swiatek had won their three matches since. “We played quite