Top-seeded Elena Dementieva beat Taiwan*s Chan Yung-jan (轙褆窴) 7-5, 6-3 yesterday to progress to the second round of the ASB Classic women*s tennis tournament.
The Russian player, ranked fourth in the world, struggled in the first set but settled into her game in the second, beating the unseeded Chan in one hour, 32 minutes.
※She was on fire at the beginning and put a lot of pressure on me,§ Dementieva said. ※I didn*t expect such a high level and it took me a while to get into the game.§
PHOTO: AFP
Second-seeded Caroline Wozniaki of Denmark needed only 56 minutes to beat Alberta Brianti of Italy 6-1, 6-0.
Eighth-seeded Carla Suarez Navarro of Spain also had an easy passage to the second round, beating Nathalie Dechy of France 6-4, 6-0, while seventh-seeded Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova defeated Kristina Barrois of Germany 6-3, 6-1.
The success of the seeded players followed wins on Monday by No. 3 Anabel Medina Garrigues of Spain, No. 4 Aleksandra Wozniak of Canada, No. 5 Shahar Peer of Israel and No. 6 Nicole Vaidisova of Czech Republic.
﹥HOPMAN CUP
AFP, PERTH, Australia
France*s chances of claiming a maiden Hopman Cup win suffered a major setback yesterday when they were upset 2-1 by Italy in the mixed teams tournament.
The loss means the French pairing of Alize Cornet and Gilles Simon need to beat second-seeded Russian siblings Marat Safin and Dinara Safina to have any chance of reaching Friday*s final.
The Italian team of Flavia Pennetta and Simone Bolelli, beaten on Sunday by the Russians, also remain in the hunt for the final with a tie against rank outsiders Taiwan tomorrow.
Cornet beat Pennetta 7-5, 6-2 before Simon, who reached a 〝career-high sixth ranking this week, slumped 6-3, 6-3 to Italian journeyman Bolelli. The Italians then claimed the deciding mixed doubles, 6-4, 7-6 (7/2).
With a couple of days to rest, Simon said the French could regroup and beat Russia tomorrow.
※We really want to play the final and we will give everything in the next match,§ he said. ※I won*t practice too much tomorrow, to be ready on Thursday, and I think Alize is playing very good, so we are okay.§
﹥BRISBANE INT.
AP, BRISBANE, Australia
Novak Djokovic doesn*t think his first-round loss to Ernests Gulbis at the Brisbane International is any cause for panic ahead of his Australian Open title defense.
Struggling to find his rhythm with a new racket, top-seeded Djokovic was upset 6-4, 6-4 in his opening match of the season yesterday by the 20-year-old Latvian who finished last year at No. 53.
The setback gave him more time to prepare for the Australian Open which starts on Jan. 19 in Melbourne, added Djokovic, who later confirmed he had accepted a wild card entry for next week*s Sydney International.
Second-seeded Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, who lost to Djokovic in the last Australian Open final, beat Argentina*s Agustin Calleri 6-2, 7-5 later yesterday and is now favored to win the inaugural Brisbane title.
Fifth-seeded Tomas Berdych of Czech Republic beat Australian Brydan Klein 6-0, 6-4, No. 7 Richard Gasquet of France beat American Taylor Dent 7-5, 6-4, and No. 4 Robin Soderling of Sweden had a 6-3, 6-3 win over Julien Benneteau in a second-round match.
American qualifiers Amer Delic and Bobby Reynolds both went out.
Croatia*s Mario Ancic overcame Delic 7-6 (2), 6-7 (4), 7-6 (6) and Japan*s Kei Nishikori beat Reynolds 6-3, 6-2.
On the women*s side, second-seeded Victoria Azarenka sealed a 7-6 (4), 7-5 win over Jarmila Gajdosova of Slovakia on her third match point and No. 3 Marion Bartoli of France beat Hungary*s Melinda Czink 5-7, 6-3, 6-1.
﹥QATAR OPEN
AP, DOHA
Fourth-seeded Andy Roddick and No. 5 Gael Monfils won in straight sets on Monday in the first round of the season-opening Qatar Open.
Roddick beat Ivan Navarro of Spain 6-1, 6-3 after breaking twice in each set. The American will play Diego Junqeira of Argentina or Arnaud Clement of France.
Monfils of France fired seven aces to win 6-2, 6-2 over Jan Hernych of the Czech Republic, who committed 28 unforced errors.
Top-ranked Rafael Nadal and No. 2 Roger Federer, a two-time winner, were in action yesterday at the US$1.2 million tournament.
﹥CHENNAI OPEN
AP, CHENNAI, India
Third-seeded Marin Cilic of Croatia and fifth-seeded Rainer Schuettler of Germany advanced to the second round of the season-opening Chennai Open on Monday.
Cilic needed only one break in each set to beat Alberto Martin of Spain 6-4, 6-4, and Schuettler held on to beat Indian wild card Prakash Amritraj 6-2, 4-6, 6-1.
Eighth-seeded Marcel Granollers of Spain also advanced, beating Lee Hyung-taik of South Korea 6-4, 7-5.
Besides Schuettler, German players Simon Greul and Bjorn Phau also advanced. Greul beat Daniel Gimeno-Traver of Spain 6-3, 6-4 and Phau defeated Santiago Ventura of Spain 6-2, 7-5.
Also, Dudi Sela of Israel rallied to overcome Ruben Ramirez Hidalgo of Spain 4-6, 7-6 (3), 6-1, and Lukas Dlouhy of the Czech Republic beat Go Soeda of Japan 3-6, 6-2, 6-4.
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
Rafael Nadal on Wednesday said the upcoming French Open would be the moment to “give everything and die” on the court after his comeback from injury in Barcelona was curtailed by Alex de Minaur. The 22-time Grand Slam title winner, back playing this week after three months on the sidelines, battled well, but eventually crumbled 7-5, 6-1 against the world No. 11 from Australia in the second round. Nadal, 37, who missed virtually all of last season, is hoping to compete at the French Open next month where he is the record 14-time champion. The Spaniard said the clash with De Minaur was
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