Top-seeded Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark rallied to beat Barbora Zahlavova Strycova of the Czech Republic 6-4, 6-1 on Wednesday in her opening match at the Family Circle Cup.
Wozniacki fell behind 3-4 in the first set on the green clay on Daniel Island before breaking back. The world’s second-ranked player then held serve in a game that went to deuce three times before breaking her opponent at love in the next game to take the set.
“I just needed to find my game and find a way how to beat her, and once I did that, I won a lot of points and I won the games,” the Dane said.
She was due to play 16th-seeded Patty Schnyder of Switzerland yesterday, who ousted Michelle Larcher De Brito of Portugal 6-3, 6-1.
Chang Kai-chen’s bid to reach the third round of a tour event for the second time this season came to an end with her defeat by Vera Dushevina.
The No. 14 seed from Russia beat the Taiwanese No. 1 6-2, 6-2 to leave Chang with a 6-9 singles record in tour events this year.
Three players withdrew from their second-round matches on Wednesday, including fifth-seeded Marion Bartoli of France who retired during the third set of her match with Peng Shuai of China.
Bartoli was pale and holding her stomach and head during a changeover about 2 hours, 20 minutes into the match.
Tour spokeswoman Mary Jane Orman said Bartoli experienced stomach pains and dizziness during the match. Peng was leading 2-6, 7-6 (2), 4-3 at the time.
Third-seeded Victoria Azarenka of Belarus and Ayumi Morita of Japan also retired. Azarenka retired with a left hamstring strain while leading qualifier Christina McHale 6-2, 2-2; and Morita retired with a thigh strain while trailing Daniela Hantuchova of Slovakia 6-4, 2-0.
Melanie Oudin, seeded 13th, advanced with a 6-2, 6-4 win over Sophie Ferguson of Australia.
In other matches sixth-seeded Nadia Petrova of Russia defeated American Vania King 6-2, 6-1, while 10th-seeded Elena Vesnina of Russia advanced 7-5, 6-2 over Sofia Arvidsson of Sweden, and Angelique Kerber of Germany beat Monique Adamczak of Australia 6-3, 6-2.
Evgeniya Rodina and Alona Bondarenko also progressed.
Additional reporting by staff writer
■MONTE CARLO MASTERS
AP, MONACO
Rafael Nadal easily beat Thiemo de Bakker of the Netherlands 6-1, 6-0 on Wednesday to win his 28th straight match at the Monte Carlo Masters, and top-seeded Novak Djokovic also won in straight sets to advance to the third round.
The second-seeded Nadal broke serve five times in the match. The Spaniard has won five straight titles at Monte Carlo, where he hasn’t lost since a third-round exit to Guillermo Coria in 2003. He missed the 2004 event because of injury.
Australian Open finalist Andy Murray lost 6-2, 6-1 to Philipp Kohlschreiber of Germany. The Scot dropped serve five times and failed to earn a single breakpoint chance.
“I just couldn’t find the court. When it’s like that, it’s kind of difficult to play,” Murray said. “I tried a few different things. I tried serve and volleying a couple of times, I tried hitting some high balls. [It] didn’t make a whole lot of difference.”
Djokovic beat Florent Serra of France 6-2, 6-3.
Djokovic raced into a 4-0 lead in his first clay-court match of the season, but faltered at times. He faced nine break points overall and lost his serve once in each set. He won on his first match point when Serra’s backhand return bounced out.
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