Maria Sharapova returns to a happy hunting ground to defend the star-studded Pan Pacific Open women’s tennis tournament starting in Japan today.
Twenty six out of the world’s top 30 players will take part in the US$2 million hard-court tournament, with only Kim Clijsters, Serena and Venus Williams and Justine Henin missing.
PHOTO: AFP
Sharapova won her first WTA singles and doubles titles at the 2003 Japan Open in Tokyo, and earned her first professional title on the ITF Circuit series in Gunma, north of the capital, a year earlier.
The Russian has won four of her 22 WTA titles in Tokyo, including the Japan Open twice and the Pan Pacific Open in 2005 and last year.
Last year, Sharapova put an end to a long layoff caused by a shoulder injury by winning her first title since Amelia Island in April 2008, beating Jelena Jankovic of Serbia in the final.
The former world No. 1 has slipped to 15th and will start her campaign from the first round against wild-card entrant Kimiko Date Krumm of Japan, the winner in 1995.
Last year’s US Open finalist Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark will lead the upper echelon, which includes fourth seed Samantha Stosur of Australia, sixth seed Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland and eighth seed Victoria Azarenka of Belarus.
The bottom half includes Sharapova, second seed Vera Zvonareva of Russia, third seed Jankovic, Beijing Olympic gold medalist Elena Dementieva of Russia and French Open champion Francesca Schiavone of Italy.
■KOREA OPEN
AFP, SEOUL
Russia’s Alisa Kleybanova survived a marathon first set yesterday before cruising through the second and into the final of the WTA Korea Open where she will meet Czech Klara Zakopalova.
The fifth seeded Kleybanova beat Hungary’s eighth seeded Agnes Szavay 6-3, 6-2 for a shot at her second career title, but it was tougher than the score suggested.
She needed six deuces to hold her serve in the opening game, a taste of things to come in the 62-minute first set, before moving up a gear to race through the second.
This will be Kleybanova’s second career final. She won her only previous one, at another Asian hard-court event earlier this year in Kuala Lumpur.
The unseeded Zakopalova will be her opponent after top seed Nadia Petrova retired ill with their game finely poised at 4-5 in the opening set. It will be Zakopalova’s 11th career final. She has won only two of them, both in 2005.
■TASHKENT OPEN
AP, TASHKENT
Alla Kudryavtseva has won her first WTA Tour title, beating Elena Vesnina 6-4, 6-4 in an all-Russian final at the Tashkent Open.
Seventh-seeded Kudryavtseva broke fourth-seeded Vesnina in the seventh game of the first set.
After an exchange of breaks midway through the second set, Kudryavtseva broke again in the seventh game and closed the match, firing an ace on the first of her two match-points.
It was Vesnina’s second defeat in a final this season. She was beaten by another compatriot, Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, in Istanbul in July.
■METZ INTERNATIONAL
Reuters, METZ, France
Top seed Marin Cilic was knocked out in the quarter-finals of the Metz International with a 6-4, 6-1 defeat by Germany’s Philipp Kohlschreiber on Friday.
The sixth-seeded Kohlschreiber easily tamed the towering Croatian’s booming serve and broke in the ninth game to take the opening set.
He quickly opened a 3-0 lead in the second set and never looked back, setting up a semi-final meeting with local favorite Gilles Simon, the eighth seed.
Simon saw off Belgian Xavier Malisse 7-5, 4-6, 6-1 to book his place in the last four.
German qualifier Mischa Zverev continued his fine run by beating Finn Jarko Nieminen 7-6, 6-3.
He will face France’s Richard Gasquet, the fourth seed, who beat Spanish seventh seed Tommy Robredo 7-6, 7-6.
■BCR OPEN ROMANIA
AP, BUCHAREST
Top-seeded Albert Montanes of Spain advanced to the semi-finals of the BCR Open Romania on Friday after outlasting No. 8 Jeremy Chardy of France 6-3, 1-6, 6-3.
The defending champion won the last three games of the match to seal the victory, after recovering from a second-set slump where he won just four points on his serve.
Marcel Granollers of Spain also advanced after ousting third-seeded Potito Starace of Italy 3-6, 7-6 (9/7), 6-4. Granollers will next play fellow Spaniard Pablo Andujar, who defeated Pablo Cuevas of Uruguay 6-4, 6-4.
Montanes will play fourth-seeded Juan Ignacio Chela of Argentina, who beat Germany’s Bjorn Phau 6-3, 6-3.
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