Eighth-seeded Elena Dementieva beat Patty Schnyder 7-5, 6-0 on Monday to advance to the second round of the Dubai Championships.
Dementieva saved two set points in the first set and then breezed through the second after Schnyder had to take a medical time-out with a pulled right hamstring.
"I knew it would be a tough opening match against Patty, and that's how it turned out," Dementieva said. "I somehow managed to stay in the first set, and once I saved two set points and won the set, it was a good boost to my confidence. I started playing much better after that."
Dementieva will next meet Alona Bondarenko, who rallied to beat Maria Kirilenko 3-6, 6-3, 6-2.
Also on Monday, Dinara Safina had an easy time against wild card Selima Sfar, winning 6-1, 6-3.
■ Haas exacts revenge
AP, MEMPHIS, TENNESSEE
Defending champion Tommy Haas of Germany won his opening match of the Regions Morgan Keegan Championships, defeating Diego Hartfield of Argentina 6-3, 6-2 on Monday.
Haas, a three-time winner of the tournament and the No. 3 seed, served out the match after gaining his third break of the second set.
Hartfield, who defeated Haas two weeks ago in the first round of the Delray Beach International, couldn't overcome a balky backhand, and Haas concentrated on that aspect of Hartfield's game.
"It's a different ballgame when you go out there and play in front of a crowd and the nerves play a role. It's not the same as practice," Haas said.
"It was a tight match against him [at Delray Beach]. I did have my chances, I just couldn't utilize them. I was still a step too slow, and I made a lot of unforced errors. [Monday] was different, and it was a great chance to redeem yourself right away," he said.
Earlier, second-seeded James Blake withdrew with a right knee problem that has bothered him for the past few weeks. Blake, who also withdrew from last year's tournament, said he didn't believe he could play a competitive match and plans to rest for the next week or two.
Seventh-seeded Jurgen Melzer of Austria was taken to three sets before defeating the US' John Isner, who was fighting the flu, 6-7 (8), 6-3, 7-6 (4).
Top-seeded Andy Roddick, coming off his win on Sunday at San Jose, will play his first match today.
In the women's Cellular South Cup, fifth-seeded Olga Govortsova of Belarus defeated Mashona Washington of the US 6-4, 6-2.
Fourth-seeded Lindsay Davenport won 7-5, 6-3 over qualifier Sabine Lisicki of Germany. Like Haas, it was a bit of revenge.
Lisicki defeated Davenport 6-1, 7-5 this month when the US defeated Germany in the first round of the Fed Cup.
■ PENNETTA ADVANCES
AP, ACAPULCO, MEXICO
Italy's Flavia Pennetta defeated Russian Ekaterina Bychkova 6-4, 6-1 to begin another run at the Abierto Mexicano title on Monday.
The top-seeded Pennetta has reached the final four times and won in 2005.
Pennetta won her fifth career title at the first stop on the Latin American claycourt swing in Vina del Mar, Chile, then was surprisingly beaten in the first round last week at Bogota, Colombia.
Mexican wild card Melissa Torres Sandoval came from behind to defeat Italy's Maria Elena Camerin 3-6, 7-5, 7-5 in a two-and-a-half-hour match.
US player Jill Craybas easily defeated Paraguay's Rossana de los Rios 6-2, 6-2, Spain's Lourdes Dominguez Lino dispatched Japan's Rika Fujiwara 7-5, 6-3 and Germany's Julia Schruff held off Hungarian Greta Arn 6-2, 6-7 (6), 7-6 (5).
On the men's side, third-seeded Juan Monaco rallied to beat fellow Argentine Juan Pablo Brzezicki 6-3, 2-6, 6-3.
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Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli yesterday vowed to “keep raising the bar” after winning the Japanese Grand Prix to become the youngest driver in Formula One history to lead the championship standings. The 19-year-old Italian took advantage of a mid-race safety car to jump into the lead after a dreadful start from pole position, crossing the line ahead of McLaren’s Oscar Piastri and Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc. Antonelli’s Suzuka victory came two weeks after the first grand prix win of his career in China, and sent him top of the championship standings after three races, nine points ahead of team-mate George Russell. Mercedes are struggling to
Liverpool star Mohamed Salah on Tuesday said that he would leave the English club at the end of the Premier League season, marking an earlier-than-planned departure for one of the club’s greatest-ever scorers and soccer’s biggest names. The 33-year-old Egypt forward, who has scored 255 goals in 435 appearances for Liverpool, “reached an agreement” to quit the team a year before his contract was due to expire, the Premier League champions said. Salah’s form has dipped in his ninth year at Anfield, to such an extent that he was dropped for a stretch of games late last year — leading to the
There were some big games to be played yesterday in the NBA, with the Atlanta Hawks to play the Detroit Pistons in a matchup pitting a Hawks team who are rolling against a Pistons team trying to lock up the Eastern Conference’s No. 1 seed. The Oklahoma City Thunder were to play the Boston Celtics, a showdown featuring the two most recent champions, while the Houston Rockets faced the Minnesota Timberwolves, a game that could factor mightily into Western Conference seeding. Elsewhere, the Washington Wizards were to play the Utah Jazz, with the Wizards on a 16-game slide visiting against a team
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