US player Vania King produced a first-round upset in the Family Circle Cup on Monday by knocking out 14th seed Olga Govortsova 6-7 (3), 7-6 (5), 6-3 at Charleston.
The 20-year-old King, ranked No. 121 in the world, mounted a spirited fight-back after trailing Belarusian Govortsova 5-3 in the second set, and then took charge in the third.
China’s Peng Shuai (彭帥) advanced to the second round with a comfortable 6-0, 6-2 win over Russia’s Anastasia Pivovarova.
PHOTO: AFP
Peng, the 10th seed, will face the winner of the tie between Uzbekistan’s Akgul Amanmuradova and American Alexandra Stevenson.
France’s Virginie Razzano, the 13th seed, also cruised to a straight sets 6-1, 6-2 victory over American Mallory Cecil, while 11th seed Alona Bondarenko of Ukraine disposed of Luxembourg’s Anne Kremer 6-4, 6-0.
Top seed and world No. 3 Elena Dementieva of Russia enjoyed a first-round bye and will take on Julie Ditty in round two, after the American beat Japan’s Ayumi Morita 6-1, 6-1.
Second seed Venus Williams is drawn to play either India’s Sania Mirza or Sesil Karatantcheva of Kazakhstan after their first-round clash.
■BARCELONA OPEN
AP, BARCELONA, SPAIN
Top-seeded Alize Cornet of France was upset 6-0, 6-3 by compatriot Stephanie Cohen-Aloro in the first round of the Barcelona Open on Monday.
Cohen-Aloro saved six break chances against her in the first set and took advantage of Cornet’s ineffective service game — which netted just seven points in the opening set — to break her 14th-ranked opponent three times.
The 97th-ranked Cohen-Aloro then broke Cornet at the first opportunity in the second game of the second set for a 2-0 lead and then hung on for the victory after both players traded break points.
Second-seeded Flavia Pennetta of Italy broke Petra Kvitova seven times to overcome four breaks of her own serve in a 6-3, 6-3 win over the Czech. Pennetta will play Roberta Vinci, who beat Pauline Parmentier of France 6-4, 7-6 (7) in the second round.
Nearly a week after upsetting top-ranked Serena Williams in Andalucia, Klara Zakopalova lost 6-1, 7-6 (7) to Slovakia’s Magdalena Rybarikova to bow out of the tournament.
■MONTE CARLO MASTERS
REUTERS, MONTE CARLO
Czech No. 15 seed Radek Stepanek was knocked out in the first round of the Monte Carlo Masters when he lost 6-3, 1-6, 6-3 to Ecuador’s Nicolas Lapentti on Monday.
Lapentti, who reached sixth place in the ATP rankings in 1999 but had to labor through the qualifiers in Monte Carlo, broke decisively in the second game of the decider and wrapped up the win on his first match point.
The world No. 98 next faces the winner of yesterday’s battle between former No. 1s Marat Safin of Russia and Australian Lleyton Hewitt.
Argentine Juan Ignacio Chela beat Russian Igor Kunitsyn 6-4, 2-6, 7-5 to set up a second-round meeting with world No. 1 Rafael Nadal.
Ivan Ljubicic of Croatia beat Kristof Vliegen of Belgium 6-4, 6-7(5), 6-4.
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Taiwanese sprinter Chen Yi-cen on Friday won the silver medal in the women’s 400m final at the Asian U20 Athletics Championships in Hong Kong, with a time of 53.16 seconds. Chen, 15, was the youngest among the eight finalists, and her performance also met the qualifying standard of 53.50 seconds for the Nagoya Asian Games in Japan in September and October. Chen first made her mark at the National Games in Tainan in 2023, at the age of 13, winning the women’s 400m final in 55.55 seconds to become the youngest gold medalist in the history of the event. Meanwhile,
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