Samantha Stosur’s stunned world No. 1 Caroline Wozniacki 6-4, 6-3 at the WTA Championships on Wednesday, while Vera Zvonareva and Kim Clijsters also claimed group stage wins.
Australian Stosur had too much pace and power for Wozniacki, who needs one more win in Doha to secure the year-end No. 1 ranking.
Stosur opened her Maroon Group campaign on Tuesday with a straight sets win over Francesca Schiavone, and she produced another dominant display at the Khalifa Tennis Complex.
PHOTO: EPA
The first set went on serve until the 10th game when Stosur’s relentless pressure paid off.
With Wozniacki’s serve lacking her customary zip, Stosur pressed home the advantage and forced the Dane into a weak lob that she put away to win 6-4.
In the second set, Stosur continued to take the game to Wozniacki, who began to show signs of frustration.
The 20-year-old Dane had a glimmer of hope at 3-5 when Stosur double faulted twice, but the Australian held her nerve and closed out the set for the win.
Zvonareva, who could still snatch the world No. 1 ranking from Wozniacki, beat Victoria Azarenka 7-6, 6-4 to claim her second White Group win of the tournament.
After an uninspired opening, punctuated by a bizarre breakdancing interlude on the purple-colored court following the second changeover, Zvonareva’s superior groundstrokes began to tell as Azarenka became increasingly erratic and emotional.
The 21-year-old from Belarus squandered a glorious chance to break in the eighth game, letting out a deafening shriek of frustration.
The first set went to a tiebreak. Zvonareva breaking immediately to jump out to an early lead and despite struggling on her own serve, she wrapped it up 7-4.
In the second set, Zvonareva had Azarenka on the back foot, arrowing backhands to the corners and consistently finding her target.
At 5-4 down, Azarenka saved two match points, but she netted a weak forehand on the third to hand victory to the Russian.
Clijsters also got her campaign in Doha off to a good start with a 6-2, 6-3 win over Jelena Jankovic in another White Group clash.
Taking the first set in 25 minutes, the Belgian stuttered on serve but treated the crowd to a shot-making masterclass.
At 2-2 in the second, Jankovic let a 40-15 lead slip with a catalog of unforced errors.
With Clijsters leading 5-3, Jankovic double-faulted on a third match point to hand the Belgian victory.
ST PETERSBURG OPEN
AP, ST PETERSBURG, RUSSIA
Fourth-seed Lu Yen-hsun of Taiwan crashed out of the St Petersburg Open singles tournament yesterday, losing in straight sets to Dmitry Tursunov of Russia.
The unseeded California-based Russian claimed the first set 6-1 in only 20 minutes and although the Taiwanese No. 1 put up a better show in the second set he couldn’t prevent the world No. 264 from wrapping up the victory by taking the second set 6-4.
In other second round action yesterday, Illya Marchenko of Ukraine beat Russia’s Konstantin Kravchuk 6-4, 6-4.
Eighth-seed Victor Hanescu of Romanian downed American Rajeev Ram 7-6 (7/1), 3-6, 6-3 and there were straight sets victories for Benjamin Becker of Germany and Ukraine’s Oleksandr Dolgopolov Jr.
OPEN SUD DE FRANCE
AP, MONTPELLIER, FRANCE
Fifth-seeded John Isner of the US moved to 999 aces for the season as he edged out French qualifier Adrian Mannarino 7-6 (5), 6-7 (5), 6-3 in the second round of the Open Sud de France on Wednesday.
Isner sent down 27 aces in a 2 hour, 11 minutes win.
The American will next play either No. 3 Gael Monfils of France or Steve Darcis of Belgium for a semi-final spot.
The top two seeds also advanced to the quarter-finals with No.1 Nikolay Davydenko of Russia defeating Mischa Zverev of Germany 7-5, 6-3 and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga booking a spot in the next round by cruising past Frederico Gil 6-3, 6-4.
Jarkko Nieminen of Finland rallied from a set down to beat France’s Florent Serra and reach the second round with a 6-7 (4), 7-5, 6-1 win.
In the other first round match, Gilles Simon beat Nicolas Mahut.
BANK AUSTRIA TROPHY
AP, VIENNA
Defending champ Jurgen Melzer and his opponent in last year’s final, Marin Cilic, both reached the quarter-finals of the Bank Austria Trophy on Wednesday.
Melzer defeated Lukasz Kubot of Poland 7-6 (3), 7-6 (2), and Cilic beat Jan Hajek of the Czech Republic 7-6 (4), 6-2.
Melzer had an early break but then lost four games in a row to go 5-3 down. He saved a set point and took the opening set on his first chance in the tiebreaker.
Melzer went 4-1 up in the second but again needed a tiebreaker, and converted his first match point.
In the quarter-finals, Melzer will take on Philipp Kohlschreiber, who defeated fellow German Tobias Kamke 6-4, 3-6, 6-1.
In first-round play, Bjorn Phau beat compatriot Florian Mayer.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY STAFF WRITER
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