A pumped up Maria Sharapova overcame Victoria Azarenka of Belarus 6-7 (4/7), 6-4, 6-2 to advance to the third round of the LA Championships on Wednesday.
World No. 1 and top seed Dinara Safina also moved ahead with a clinical 6-2, 6-4 victory over Slovakia’s Daniela Hantuchova.
In her highest-ranked victory since returning to the tour in May after shoulder surgery, Sharapova set up the win by countering world No. 9 Azarenka’s power from the baseline and pouncing on her weak second serve.
PHOTO: AP
“I loved it,” Sharapova told reporters. “Going into the match, I knew I would have to dig deep and find ways to win and hang tough.”
After 20-year-old Azarenka sealed the first set tiebreaker 7-4 with a gutsy forehand passing shot, Sharapova varied her attack to deny the fleet Belarusian a chance to dictate terms inside the baseline.
The Russian three-time Grand Slam champion took the second set with a service winner and then cruised to victory after taking two early breaks in the third.
PHOTO: AP
“I don’t do anything well today,” Azarenka said.
Sharapova faces Alona Bondarenko in the third round, the Ukrainian world No. 33 accounting for Czech Lucie Safarova 5-7, 6-4, 7-5.
Defending champion Safina beat Hantuchova for the fourth time in seven meetings to advance to the third round and become the first to qualify for the season-ending WTA championships in Qatar.
“We play the same way, so it depends on who’s going to take charge of the points and I think at the crucial times I was more aggressive today,” said Safina, who faces 14th seed Zheng Jie of China in the third round.
Fifth seed Nadia Petrova of Russia also advanced with a 6-4, 2-6, 6-3 win over Israel’s Shahar Peer, while eighth seed Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland steamrolled Ai Sugiyama 6-2, 6-1.
■WASHINGTON CLASSIC
AFP, WASHINGTON
US top seed Andy Roddick made a triumphant return on Wednesday in his first match since a heartbreaking Wimbledon final loss, defeating Germany’s Benjamin Becker 6-3, 6-2 at the ATP Washington Classic.
Fifth-ranked Roddick fired eight aces and overpowered his 47th-ranked rival in 55 minutes to reach a third-round match against compatriot Sam Querrey, who beat Russian Igor Kunitsyn 6-3, 6-4 at the hard court event.
“I did all right. All in all it was a good first match,” Roddick said. “I learned what I wanted out there. I wasn’t going to get too creative. I wanted to get my feet under me, not come out firing from all the gates, just try and do the basics well.”
Swiss superstar Roger Federer outlasted Roddick in a five-set thriller at the All-England Club a month ago to claim his record 15th Grand Slam title, but not before Roddick pushed him through the longest fifth set in Slam history.
“I was certainly eager to get back out there,” Roddick said.
Roddick, a three-time champion at Washington, broke Becker’s first service game in each set. Roddick lost only three points on his serve in the opening set, ending it on an ace, and broke at love in the fifth game of the second set.
“I did a good job of putting returns in the court,” Roddick said.
Roddick, whose only Grand Slam title came at the 2003 US Open, felt the rust of a month-long layoff most in his serve, even though he connected on 58 percent of first serves.
“I didn’t serve that well. It wasn’t where it normally is,” Roddick said. “If I have to have one thing rusty that I don’t worry about coming around, it’s my serve.”
Querrey has been on a roll in the past month, reaching the finals at Newport and Indianapolis and winning last week’s title at Los Angeles.
“He’s in form. It’s certainly not going to be easy,” Roddick said.
Querrey expects top form from Roddick, despite the layoff.
“It’s going to be a tough match,” Querrey said.
American John Isner fired 20 aces past third seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and won four of the last five points after a rain delay in the third-set tie-breaker to beat the Frenchman 4-6, 7-6 (7/2), 7-6 (7/4).
“For my first match in a while, it was not easy to play a big guy serving well,” Tsonga said. “That might be the first time I have ever lost without losing my serve.”
Former world No. 1s Lleyton Hewitt of Australia and Juan Carlos Ferrero of Spain reached the third round. Hewitt defeated Israel’s Dudi Sela 6-3, 2-6, 6-2. Ferrero ousted seventh-seeded Davis Cup teammate Tommy Robredo 6-3, 6-2.
“I’ve had to get better every match,” Hewitt said. “For me, it’s about building up match practice going into the Masters Series and the US Open.”
Hewitt will next meet defending champion and second seed Juan Martin Del Potro of Argentina. Ferrero, who snapped a five-year title drought in April at Casablanca, will next play Germany’s Tommy Haas.
Croatian Ivo Karlovic fired 18 aces to defeat Germany’s Rainer Schuettler 6-4, 7-5 and book a third-round match against India qualifier Somdev Devvarman.
“If Ivo is serving well, it’s hard to even get a look,” Devvarman said.
Devvarman downed lanky Karlovic in January at Chennai in a run to the final in his hometown.
Serbian Viktor Troicki, last year’s Washington runner-up, retired with a right-foot injury after losing the first three games to France’s Marc Gicquel, who faces Swedish fifth seed Robin Soderling next.
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