Top-ranked Serena Williams opened her season with a 6-1, 6-2 win over Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez yesterday, reaching the quarter-finals at a Sydney International where other leading players have struggled.
No. 3 Svetlana Kuznetsova lost 7-5, 6-2 to Slovakia’s Dominika Cibulkova later yesterday, joining fourth-seeded Caroline Wozniacki, No. 7 Jelena Jankovic and No. 8 Vera Zvonareva as losers in the first two rounds.
Second-seeded Dinara Safina was in trouble in her first set after quitting with a back injury at the season-ending championships in October. Safina lost the opening five games before recovering to win nine straight in a 7-5, 6-4 victory over Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland.
PHOTO: EPA
Safina will next play Olympic gold medalist Elena Dementieva, who held off Slovakia’s Daniela Hantuchova 6-2, 4-6, 6-2.
Sixth-seeded Victoria Azarenka of Belarus beat Japanese veteran Kimiko Date Krumm 6-1, 5-7, 7-5.
Elena Vesnina, who advanced from the first round when Zvonareva retired hurt on Monday, lost 6-3, 6-4 yesterday to Vera Dushevina, who now plays Williams in the quarter-finals.
Williams is using the Sydney tournament as her main warm-up for first major of the season, which starts next Monday in Melbourne.
She won the WTA Championship on Nov. 1 and had a bye in the first round. She spent only 1 hour, 12 minutes on court against Spanish Hopman Cup winner Martinez Sanchez as temperatures hit 33ºC.
Williams said she wanted to play matches to acclimatize quickly, with the southern city of Melbourne experiencing a heat wave a week ahead of the Australian Open.
Safina spent 1:47 on court and dropped serve five times in a struggle against No. 10-ranked Radwanska. Despite the slow start, she said the back inflammation which restricted her training until the middle of last month didn’t cause her any concerns in Sydney.
In men’s first-round matches, sixth-seeded Viktor Troicki of Serbia advanced over Frenchman Florent Serra 7-6 (5), 6-4, No. 8 Benjamin Becker had a 6-3, 6-3 win over Juan Ignacio Chela of Argentina, and American Mardy Fish beat Australia’s Carsten Ball 6-4, 7-6 (4).
American Sam Querrey, seeded fifth, lost 6-2, 5-7, 6-4 to Russia’s Evgeny Korolev.
■HEINEKEN OPEN
AP, AUCKLAND, NEW ZEALAND
Former champion Philipp Kohlschreiber took advantage of a late change in the draw to beat qualifier Inigo Cervantes-Huegun 6-2, 6-3 yesterday to reach the second round of the Heineken Open.
The fifth-seeded German was originally drawn to play former world No. 3 David Nalbandian, but the Argentinian withdrew from the tournament on Monday with an abdominal strain.
Spain’s Cervantes-Huegun, who had been beaten in the last round of qualifying, moved into the main draw as a lucky loser.
“I expected a tough match today [against Nalbandian] and I was more nervous than usual but maybe he was not 100 percent,” Kohlschreiber said. “Still, I was looking to play a good match and it was nice to be out here.”
Former world No. 4 Sebastian Grosjean was also a beneficiary of Nalbandian’s late withdrawal, inheriting Nalbandian’s wild card and beating Germany’s Florian Mayer 6-3, 3-6, 6-3 to advance to the second round.
The win was Grosjean’s third in as many matches against Mayer, including his 2004 victory in the quarter-finals at Wimbledon.
Big-serving American John Isner avenged a 2008 loss to Guillermo Garcia-Lopez when he beat the 41st-ranked Spaniard 4-6, 7-6 (3), 6-2.
Isner lost to Garcia-Lopez at San Jose in three sets, all tiebreakers, including a third that finished 13-11 in the Spaniard’s favor.
“That left a bitter taste in my mouth and I was glad to exact some revenge today,” Isner said.
After a shaky start, Isner sent down 11 aces to win in just over two hours.
Isner’s second-round opponent will be seventh-seeded Argentine Juan Monaco, who used an improved serve to beat compatriot Horacio Zeballos 6-3, 6-0.
Eighth-seeded Alberto Montanes of Spain beat Australian qualifier James Lemke 6-1, 7-5.
American brothers Bob and Mike Bryan, the world’s top-ranked doubles combination, suffered a surprise 4-6, 6-4, 10-6 loss to the first-time combination of Zeballos and Roger Wassen of the Netherlands.
■HOBART INTERNATIONAL
REUTERS, SYDNEY
Spanish top seed Anabel Medina Garrigues came from behind to beat Russian qualifier Alla Kudryavtseva 3-6, 6-3, 6-1 at the Hobart International yesterday.
Medina Garrigues recovered from her slow start to run away with the match and set up a quarter-final against Gisela Dulko, who had an even tougher time.
The Argentine, playing in the afternoon when the wind was blowing hard, beat Austria’s Tamira Paszek 6-1, 0-6, 7-6 after struggling in the conditions.
The wind gusts became so strong that the umpire had to interrupt the match several times as loose objects blew across the court.
Alona Bondarenko of Ukraine, the fourth seed, beat Alize Cornet of France 6-4, 3-6, 6-2.
She will play Zheng Jie in the quarter-finals after the Chinese player beat compatriot Peng Shuai 6-2, 6-1 in the Australian Open warmup.
Shohei Ohtani and his wife arrived in South Korea with his Los Angeles Dodgers teammates yesterday ahead of their season-opening games with the San Diego Padres next week. Ohtani, wearing a black training suit and a cap backwards, was the first Dodgers player who showed up at the arrival gate of Incheon International Airport, west of Seoul. His wife, Mamiko Tanaka, walked several steps behind him. As a crowd of fans, many wearing Dodgers jerseys, shouted his name and cheered slogans, Ohtani briefly waved his hand, but did not say anything before he entered a limousine bus with his wife. Fans held placards
Taiwan’s Tai Tzu-ying yesterday advanced to the quarter-finals at the All England Open, beating Kim Ga-eun of South Korea 21-17, 21-15. With the win, Tai earned a semi-final against China’s He Bingjiao, who beat Michelle Li of Canada 21-9, 21-9. Defending champion An Se-young defeated India’s P.V. Sindhu 21-19, 21-11. An on Wednesday cruised into the second round, unlike last year’s men’s winner, Li Shifeng, who suffered a shock defeat. South Korea’s An, the world No. 1, overcame Taiwan’s Hsu Wen-chi 21-17, 21-16 to set up the match against Sindhu. In other women’s singles matches, Taiwan’s Sung Shuo-yun lost 21-18, 24-22 against Carolina Marin of
EYEING TOP SPOT: A victory in today’s final against Storm Hunter and Katerina Siniakova would return 38-year-old Hsieh Su-wei to the world No. 1 ranking Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei and Elise Mertens on Thursday secured a spot in the women’s doubles finals at the BNP Paribas Open after dispatching Nicole Melichar-Martinez of the US and Australia’s Ellen Perez 6-2, 7-6 (7/5) at Indian Wells. Hsieh and her Belgian partner Mertens, who won the Australian Open in late January, coasted through the first set after breaking their opponents’ serve twice, but found the going tougher in the second. Both pairs could only muster one break point over 12 games, neither of which were converted, leaving the set to be decided by a tiebreaker. Hsieh and Mertens took a 6-3 lead,
DOUBLES PAYBACK: Hsieh Su-wei and Elise Martens avenged their defeat in the quarters at the Qatar TotalEnergies Open against Demi Schuurs and Luisa Stefani Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei on Wednesday advanced to the semi-finals of the women’s doubles at the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, California. Hsieh and partner Elise Mertens of Belgium dispatched Demi Schuurs and Luisa Stefani 6-1, 6-4 to set up a clash against Nicole Melichar-Martinez of the US and Australia’s Ellen Perez for a spot in the final of the WTA 1000 tournament. Hsieh and Martens made a blistering start to their rematch after they lost to Schuurs and Stefani in the quarter-finals at the Qatar TotalEnergies Open last month, winning three games without reply at the start of the first set