Taiwan’s Chang Kai-chen and Chan Yung-jan both lost their first-round matches at the Bank of the West Classic on Tuesday. Christina McHale of the US defeated Chang 3-6, 6-0, 6-2, in a match featuring a pair of qualifiers, while No. 7 seed Yanina Wickmayer of Belgium downed Chan 6-3, 6-1.
Meanwhile, Maria Sharapova made a triumphant return to hardcourts, beating China’s Zheng Jie 6-4, 7-5.
Sharapova suffered a loss to Zheng the last time she played on hardcourts, at Indian Wells in March.
PHOTO: AFP
“That was a scratchy match,” said the fifth-seeded Russian. “I wasn’t feeling good and I didn’t want to remember it.”
The 15th-ranked Sharapova missed six weeks right after that loss because of an elbow injury and shoulder problems.
“After you don’t play for a while you have to be ready from the beginning,” Sharapova said. “I wanted to adapt as quickly as I could. She’s a competitor and a good player and I had to be ready.”
PHOTO: AFP
Defending champion Marion Bartoli was another of the five seeds to advance, beating American Ashley Harkleroad 6-1, 6-4.
The fourth-seeded Frenchwoman, ranked 14th, was forced to work hard in the second set.
“For someone who hasn’t played that much lately, she was giving me a hard time out there,” Bartoli said.
Bartoli won 81 percent of her first serve points to overwhelm the American, who was playing only her second match on the WTA Tour in two years.
In the final match of the night, American teenager Melanie Oudin recovered from a 5-1 deficit in the second set to beat Canadian Aleksandra Wozniak, 6-7 (6), 7-5, 6-3 in a match that lasted 2 hours, 29 minutes.
In other first-round matches, sixth-seeded Shahar Peer of Israel beat Slovakia’s Daniela Hantuchova, 0-6, 6-4, 6-3; Belarus’ Victoria Azarenka, the eighth seed, topped Japan’s Ayumi Morita, 6-0, 6-2; qualifier Olga Savchuk of Ukraine knocked off American Jill Craybas, 6-3, 6-3 and Russian Maria Kirilenko beat qualifier Mirjana Lucic of Croatia, 6-1, 6-4.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY STAFF WRITER
■ISTANBUL CUP
AP, ISTANBUL, TURKEY
Anastasija Sevastova of Latvia defeated second-seeded Petra Kvitova of Czech Republic 6-2, 0-6, 6-4 on Tuesday in the first round of the Istanbul Cup.
Third-seeded Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova of Russia easily advanced to the second round by beating Poland’s Marta Domachowska 6-1, 6-0, while No. 5 Tsvetana Pironkova of Bulgaria defeated Tatjana Malek of Germany 7-6 (4), 6-2.
Also on Tuesday, French Open champion and top-seeded Francesca Schiavone of Italy resumed her rain-suspended match against Anne Keothavong of Britain. Schiavone led 4-0 in the first set when play was halted on Monday. Things didn’t get much better for the Brit as the Italian went on to beat Keothavong 6-2, 6-2.
■FARMERS CLASSIC
AP, LOS ANGELES
James Blake, still sharpening his game after missing over two months with a right knee injury, rolled to a 6-1, 6-4 victory over Leonardo Mayer of Argentina on Tuesday in a first-round match at the Farmers Classic.
Blake, once No. 4 in the world and now No. 117 after a string of injuries, has reached two quarter-finals and has a 9-10 match record this season, so he’s trying to take a low-key approach to the game for the time being.
“I’m really happy with the way I played,” he said. “I went into the match with the goal of just controlling my side of the court and playing with the right kind of energy. I’m back to feeling healthy and I want to just play that way without the huge expectations or anything, just playing my game. I did it and it worked out well today.”
In other matches, Colombia’s Alejandro Falla beat Karol Beck of Slovakia 7-6 (3), 6-4, and Benjamin Becker of Germany needed four match points to turn back lucky loser Giovanni Lapentti of Ecuador 7-5, 7-6 (6). Lapentti made the draw when American Mardy Fish — winner of his past two tournaments — withdrew because of fatigue.
Robby Ginepri beat Ilija Bozoljack of Serbia, 6-3, 6-4; and Ryan Sweeting outlasted Kristof Vliegen of Belgium, 2-6, 6-3, 6-4. In the other day match, Kevin Anderson of South Africa beat Illya Marchenko of the Ukraine, 6-3, 6-2.
Somdev Devvarman of India won 6-4, 6-4 against American Steve Johnson, who was making his singles debut on the ATP Tour.
■CROATIA OPEN
AP, UMAG, CROATIA
Olivier Rochus of Belgium upset fifth-seeded Philipp Petzschner of Germany 6-2, 6-3 in the first round of the Croatia Open on Tuesday.
Rochus didn’t face a single break point in beating his first top-50 player since downing Robin Soderling in the second round at Nice in May. Rochus will face Andreas Seppi of Italy, who defeated Argentina’s Maximo Gonzalez 6-3, 3-6, 6-1.
Potito Starace of Italy beat Sergiy Stakhovsky of Ukraine 6-3, 6-7 (5), 6-0, and Jan Hajek of Czech Republic downed Austria’s Gerald Melzer 6-4, 6-3.
Stephane Robert beating Olivier Patience 6-3, 6-2 in an all-French match.
Also advancing to the second round were Pablo Cuevas of Uruguay, Simone Bolelli of Italy and Ivan Dodig, Croatia.
Bologna on Thursday advanced past Empoli to reach their first Coppa Italia final in more than half a century. Thijs Dallinga’s 87th-minute header earned Bologna a 2-1 win and his side advanced 5-1 on aggregate. Giovanni Fabbian opened the scoring for Bologna with a header seven minutes in. Then Viktor Kovalenko equalized for Empoli in the 30th minute by turning in a rebound to finish off a counterattack. Bologna won the first leg 3-0. In the May 14 final in Rome, Bologna are to face AC Milan, who eliminated city rivals Inter 4-1 on aggregate following a 3-0 win on Wednesday. Bologna last reached the
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