Maria Sharapova pushed the envelope on winning ugly to squeak past British qualifier Heather Watson 6-7 (7/9), 6-3, 6-4 and reach the last 16 of the Pan Pacific Open yesterday.
The French Open champion’s performance bordered on the farcical at times, with the second seed carelessly frittering away three set points to surrender the initiative before pulling off an escape act.
By contrast, world No. 1 Victoria Azarenka took 63 minutes, exactly a third of the time Sharapova spent on court, to crush Austrian Tamira Paszek 6-1, 6-1 and book her spot in the third round of the US$2.16 million Tokyo event.
Photo: AFP
Li Na, last year’s Roland Garros winner, shrugged off a nasty cough to beat Russian Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 7-5, 4-6, 6-2.
Sharapova left herself with work to do after a string of double faults and horror misses gift-wrapped the first set tiebreak to Watson 9-7.
The errors continued to mount, but the Russian, her squealing growing increasingly louder with the effort, did just enough to restore parity by winning the second set.
Photo: AFP
A forehand miss gave Sharapova the break for 4-3 in the decider and the two-time Tokyo champion crawled over the line with a big forehand after 3 hours, 9 minutes.
“I definitely felt rusty today,” said Sharapova, who served 14 double faults and finished with 67 unforced errors. “It’s one of those matches you’re just happy to get through.”
One of three Chinese players who made the trip to Tokyo despite a blazing political row between her country and Japan, Li’s experience told after a wobble in the second set.
“I’m still not 100 percent,” Li said. “Just trying to stay healthy and taking [cough] medicine every morning and every night.”
Azarenka produced an explosive display of hitting to floor Paszek.
“There is definitely a lot of baggage to carry being world No. 1,” said the Belarussian, who won this year’s Australian Open and reached the US Open final earlier this month. “Everyone wants to take your spot. I’m not complaining. It makes it more exciting to know someone is after you. I get more motivated by it.”
Li’s appearance in Tokyo was a relief for organizers after China withdrew its badminton players from last week’s Japan Open amid tensions over disputed islands in the East China Sea.
The 30-year-old saved her best for the crunch points, putting the match away by smashing a cross-court backhand into the corner after 2 hours, 37 minutes.
Former Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova was bundled out in the first upset of the WTA Premier Five event, suffering a 6-4, 6-4 defeat by Croatia’s Petra Martic.
The fourth seed squandered numerous opportunities against her 72nd-ranked opponent, who closed out the match with a fierce serve that almost knocked the Czech over.
“That was the biggest win of my career so far,” Martic said. “The last five or six days have been really weird. I’ve played bad in practice, just couldn’t do anything.”
Martic next faces Russia’s Nadia Petrova after the 17th seed beat Romania’s Simona Halep 7-6 (7/4), 6-0.
Nine of the world’s top 10 women are appearing in the hardcourt tournament. US Open champion Serena Williams is the only absentee.
Germany’s Angelique Kerber made short work of Japanese wildcard Ayumi Morita, the fifth seed comfortably winning 6-3, 6-4 to reach the third round.
Sixth seed Sara Errani of Italy beat Sweden’s Johanna Larsson 6-3, 7-6 (7/1) and next faces Frenchwoman Marion Bartoli after the ninth seed’s 6-2, 7-5 win over German Julia Goerges.
Also yesterday in the doubles, Hsieh Su-wei of Taiwan and Anabel Medina Garrigues of Spain beat Natalie Grandin of South Africa and Vladimira Uhlirova of Czech Republic 6-0, 6-5, while Julia Goerges of Germany and Barbara Zahlavova Strycova of Czech Republic beat Chuang Chia-jung of Taiwan and Kimiko Date-Krumm of Japan 6-1, 5-7, 10-5.
Additional reporting by staff writer
Malaysian Open
AP, KUALA LUMPUR
Albert Ramos of Spain hit 14 aces past Austrian qualifier Julian Knowle in winning their Malaysian Open first-round match 6-1, 6-4 yesterday.
Ramos moved on to a match with third-seeded Kei Nishikori of Japan at Putra Stadium.
Matthew Ebden of Australia beat Russian wild-card Philip Davydenko, the nephew of Nikolay Davydenko, 6-0, 7-6 (7-3), and lined up a second-round encounter with seventh-seeded Julien Benneteau of France.
Benneteau beat Carlos Berlocq of Argentina 7-6 (7/2), 6-3.
In doubles, Alexander Peya of Austria and Bruno Soares of Brazil beat Jimmy Wang of Taiwan and Si Yew-ming of Malaysia 6-2, 6-2.
Additional reporting by staff writer
Thailand open
AFP, BANGKOK
Former finalists Viktor Troicki of Serbia and Finn Jarkko Nieminen made winning starts at the Thailand Open yesterday, progressing to the second round.
Sixth seed Troicki had the tougher first-round match, coming back from a set down to defeat Sergiy Stakhovsky of the Ukraine 6-7 (4/7), 7-5, 6-3.
The win broke a losing streak for world No. 31 Troicki, who was knocked out in the first rounds of his previous two tournaments.
“I’m happy with this first-round performance,” said the Serb, who will play either Frenchman Gael Monfils or South African qualifier Kevin Anderson in the next round.
“No matter whom I play in the next round, it will be a tough match again for sure. I hope I can keep playing as well as I did today,” he added.
Nieminen, the defeated finalist in 2010 to Guillermo Garcia Lopez, progressed after just 35 minutes, when Japan’s Yuichi Sugita retired following a 6-1 loss in the first set.
Troicki and Nieminen were joined in the second round by Israeli Dudi Sela, who defeated Roger Federer’s childhood friend Marco Chiudinelli 6-4, 6-4.
Donald Young of the US beat Taiwan’s Lu Yen-hsun 5-7, 6-2, 7-5.
Additional reporting by staff writer
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