Maria Sharapova shook off some inconsistent play to beat Japan’s Ai Sugiyama, 6-4, 6-7 (6), 6-1, in the first round of the WTA Premier Bank of the West Classic on Monday.
The 62nd-ranked Sharapova, working her way back from right shoulder surgery, avoided losing her first match in a tournament since Oct. 8, 2007, in Moscow to Victoria Azarenka. She has not lost a first-round match since Aug. 11, 2003, to Elena Likhovtseva in Toronto.
Sharapova recovered from a 4-0 deficit in the first set, but then allowed a 5-2 lead in the second set to get away before dominating the third set.
PHOTO: AFP
Sugiyama and Sharapova were scheduled to meet in Montreal last July before the former world No. 1 withdrew with her injury and sat out the next nine months.
Sharapova has won 12 of her 16 matches this year, and is 44-8 since the beginning of last year.
Fourth-ranked and third-seeded Elena Dementieva beat 54th-ranked Anne Keothavong of Britain 6-1, 6-4, in their first-round match.
Dementieva spent most of her off time at home in Moscow, leaving the marathon loss to Serena Williams in the semi-finals at Wimbledon far behind.
The time off and the long flight from Russia gave Dementieva problems in the second set. She was up 5-1 and then struggled to hold off the feisty Keothavong, who is looking to reach her first career WTA Tour final after 17 ITF championships.
In other first-round matches, seventh-seeded Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland beat Romania’s Sorana Cirstea, 6-0, 6-1; and Monica Niculescu of Romania beat the US’ Meghann Shaughnessy, 6-1, 6-0.
■LOS ANGELES OPEN
AP, LOS ANGELES
Jesse Levine beat fellow American Bobby Reynolds 6-2, 6-3 on Monday in the opening round of the Los Angeles Tennis Open.
Levine won for the sixth time in nine matches, and will face top-seeded Tommy Haas in the second round today.
In other first round matches, Australian Chris Guccione beat Kevin Kim of the US, 6-1, 6-4, and Robert Kendrick overwhelmed fellow American Vince Spadea, 6-0, 6-0.
If he advances further, Levine could have a rematch with Marat Safin for the first time since beating him in the opening round at Wimbledon.
Safin, the No. 8 seed in this 28-player field that is void of any top 20 players, beat Pete Sampras later on Monday night in an exhibition rematch of their 2000 US Open final, which Safin won.
Safin won the exhibition 10-6 in a tiebreaker after they had split two sets. The Russian had said he wanted the match to be “all about fun. It’s not about to show to each other who is the best one and whatever. I know he was much better player than me.”
Sampras, who won this tournament twice, said he’d like to play an exhibition or a Seniors Tour match every three or four months, but he hoped it wouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone that “I’m not quite as good as I used to be.”
The crowd didn’t seem to mind at all, cheering and groaning at all the appropriate moments during the fast-paced match.
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