- Home
- Premium Memberships
- Lottery Results
- Forums
- Predictions
- Lottery Post Videos
- News
- Search Drawings
- Search Lottery Post
- Lottery Systems
- Lottery Charts
- Lottery Wheels
- Worldwide Jackpots
- Quick Picks
- On This Day in History
- Blogs
- Online Games
- Premium Features
- Contact Us
- Whitelist Lottery Post
- Rules
- Lottery Book Store
- Lottery Post Gift Shop
The time is now 2:45 am
You last visited
April 19, 2024, 2:13 am
All times shown are
Eastern Time (GMT-5:00)
Top seeds advance at Sydney
Published:
Updated: January 12, 2010, 8:48 AM ET
Top seeds advance at Sydney
Associated Press
SYDNEY -- Top-ranked Serena Williams opened her season with a 6-1, 6-2 win over Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez on Tuesday, reaching the quarterfinals at a Sydney International where other leading players have struggled.
No. 3 Svetlana Kuznetsova lost 7-5, 6-2 to Slovakia's Dominika Cibulkova later Tuesday, joining fourth-seeded Caroline Wozniacki, No. 7 Jelena Jankovic and No. 8 Vera Zvonareva as losers in the first two rounds.
Second-seeded Dinara Safina was in trouble in her first set since she quit with a back injury at the season-ending championships in October, losing the opening five games before recovering to win nine straight in a 7-5, 6-4 victory over Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland.
Safina will next play Olympic gold medalist Elena Dementieva, who held off Slovakia's Daniela Hantuchova 6-2, 4-6, 6-2.
Sixth-seeded Victoria Azarenka of Belarus beat Japanese veteran Kimiko Date Krumm 6-1, 5-7, 7-5.
Elena Vesnina, who advanced from the first round when Zvonareva retired hurt on Monday, lost 6-3, 6-4 on Tuesday to Vera Dushevina, who plays Williams in the quarterfinals.
Williams said she wasn't bothered about how many seeded players made early exits, or how it opened up the draw for her.
"I don't care who I play. Whenever I play someone they play their best." she said. "I play Vera Dushevina next and she's a good player and she's been ranked high before.
"So whoever I play, believe me, they're going to play like No. 1 on that particular day against me for whatever reason, so it doesn't matter for me."
Williams is using the Sydney tournament as her main warmup for the Australian Open, the first major of the season, which starts Monday in Melbourne.
She won the WTA Championship on Nov. 1 and had a bye in the first round here. She spent only 1 hour, 12 minutes on court against Spain's Hopman Cup winner Martinez Sanchez as temperatures hit 91 degrees.
Williams said she wanted to play matches to acclimate quickly, with the southern city of Melbourne experiencing a heat wave a week ahead of the Australian Open.
Safina spent 1:47 on court and dropped serve five times in a struggle against 10th-ranked Radwanska. Despite the slow start, she said the back inflammation that restricted her training until the middle of last month didn't cause her any concerns in Sydney.
"I was 5-love down, but the only problem was I was missing everything -- everything was flying all over the place," Safina said. "So once I win a game, I'm like, 'OK, let's start like this.' "
Safina, a finalist here last year and at the Australian Open, saved a set point in the first before breaking Radwanska in the match-turning 10th game and was satisfied with her comeback.
"I mean, it's the first match of the year. If you start to cry in the first game of first match, then what can happen when it's going to be the end of the season," she said. "It was 20 minutes and 5-love. I thought, 'OK, at least try to stay a little bit longer on the court.' "
Kuznetsova was unable to play at leadup tournaments in Brisbane or Auckland last week because she didn't fulfill her quota of tournaments in 2009 under the WTA's regulations for top player commitments, so she'll go to the Australian Open with one match as her preparation.
The reigning French Open champion said she'd been playing well in training and hoped to pick up rhythm in practice at Melbourne Park this week and in the early stages of the Australian Open.
"To play good here it would be nice. But if I didn't, I mean, it's not so bad a thing," she said. "Definitely I'm very worried about match today, and I have to improve and practice a lot before Australian Open, but that's not the worst thing in the world."
In men's first-round matches, sixth-seeded Viktor Troicki of Serbia advanced over Frenchman Florent Serra 7-6 (5), 6-4; No. 8 Benjamin Becker had a 6-3, 6-3 win over Juan Ignacio Chela of Argentina; and American Mardy Fish beat Australia's Carsten Ball 6-4, 7-6 (4).
American Sam Querrey, seeded fifth, lost 6-2, 5-7, 6-4 to Russia's Evgeny Korolev.
Comments
This Blog entry currently has no comments.
Post a Comment
Please Log In
To use this feature you must be logged into your Lottery Post account.
Not a member yet?
If you don't yet have a Lottery Post account, it's simple and free to create one! Just tap the Register button and after a quick process you'll be part of our lottery community.
Register