US Open champion Sam Stosur was bundled out in the first round of the Sydney International in a 6-2, 6-4 loss to Francesca Schiavone yesterday in another setback to her preparations for next week’s Australian Open.
Schiavone beat Stosur in the 2010 French Open final and had little trouble disposing of the local favorite again.
World No. 6 Stosur won only one match in Brisbane last week and she will be short of match sharpness in Melbourne, where she will chase back-to-back Grand Slam titles following her US Open victory.
Photo: Reuters
“You do all the work leading up and you feel OK, and then today all of a sudden it’s just like a bombshell hits you,” Stosur said. “The whole emotional side of things really took over. Melbourne is coming up and I want to start playing well. Being in Australia and playing in Australia, I want to play the best I can play and do it all here this month.”
Schiavone is set next to play Brisbane International finalist Daniela Hantuchova, who beat another Italian, Roberta Vinci, 7-5, 6-2.
While Stosur struggled, defending champion Li Na, third-seeded Victoria Azarenka, No. 7 Agnieszka Radwanska and No. 8 Marion Bartoli all advanced to the second round.
Li won her first nine games and needed only 66 minutes to beat Russian qualifier Ekaterina Makarova 6-0, 6-3.
Nine of the top 10 ranked women were entered in the Sydney International. Already, two are out of contention after Stosur and sixth seed Vera Zvonareva failed in the first round — Zvonareva was comprehensively beaten 6-1, 6-2 by Russian compatriot Svetlana Kuznetsova.
Slovakia’s Dominika Cibulkova had a 6-2, 4-6, 6-4 win over Peng Shuai of China to set up a second-round match against world No. 1 Caroline Wozniacki, who had a first-round bye.
Alexandra Dulgheru of Romania routed Sweden’s Sofia Arvidsson 6-1, 6-1 and she is scheduled to play Petra Kvitova, the Wimbledon champion.
In other first-round matches, Azarenka of Belarus beat Stefanie Vogele of Switzerland 6-2, 6-1; Bartoli of France beat Polona Hercog of Slovenia 6-3, 6-3; Radwanska beat her sister Urszula 6-1, 6-1; and Andrea Petkovic of Germany beat Russia’s Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 6-2, 6-3.
In the men’s draw, Bobby Reynolds and Ryan Sweeting of the advanced; Poland’s Lukasz Kubot had a 7-6 (7/4), 7-5 win over Ivan Dodig of Croatia; Denis Istomin of Uzbekistan beat Spain’s Pablo Andujar; and Finland’s Jarkko Nieminen ousted Australian teenager James Duckworth 6-2, 6-2.
Mathew Ebden had an upset 6-1, 3-6, 6-3 win over seventh seed Marcel Granollers of Spain.
HOBART INTERNATIONAL
AP, HOBART, AUSTRALIA
Bethanie Mattek-Sands recovered from an early break to beat 15-year-old Ashleigh Barty 6-2, 6-2 yesterday to advance to the second round of the Hobart International.
Top seed Yanina Wickmayer of Belgium advanced 7-5, 6-4 over New Zealander Marina Erakovic, while fourth seed Angelique Kerber of Germany defeated Elena Vesnina of Russia 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
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
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier