Davenport Wins, Vaidisova Extends Myskina Misery at WTA Charleston

Posted on April 14, 2005

15-year-old Nicole Vaidisova extended the miserable year of No. 3 seed Anastasia Myskina Wednesday at the WTA stop in Charleston, recording her first career Top 10 win with a 6-3, 5-7, 6-4 grinding victory over the reigning French Open champion.

"I guess it's not my year right now," said Myskina, who has an 8-8 win-loss record in 2005. "I mean, I practice pretty hard. I try. I do my best on court, that's for sure. I'm not just tank the matches. Sometimes I guess it's just not my days."

Vaidisova was already set to celebrate as the Top 50-ranked Czech will turn 16 in 10 days.

"I'm excited about today," Vaidisova said. "It's a good win for me. It gives me confidence."

Seeded winners Wednesday were (1) Lindsay Davenport (d. (Q) Pelletier), (4) Venus Williams (d. Chladkova), (8) Patty Schnyder (d. Marrero), (11) Ai Sugiyama (d. Groenefeld), (13) Tatiana Golovin (d. Raymond), and (14) Shinobu Asagoe who received a walkover from Meghann Shaughnessy due to a lower back injury.

"After coming off a long week last week, it's nice to just have kind of a quicker match," Davenport said. "We didn't have many rallies, the points were very short and just a couple balls each way, but I've played so much tennis that I feel good and happy to be through, and like the court quite a bit."

Venus was down 1-4 in the first before finding her game to win in straights.

"It was just so weird for me out there today," Venus said. "I just couldn't seem to do anything right and I couldn't keep my balls in."

Two other seeds went down in flames in the second round, with (15) Mary Pierce straight-setted by Spain's Nuria Llagostera Vives, and (16) Fabiola Zuluaga ousted by Ukraine qualifier Viktoriya Kutuzova, managing only four games.

Former No. 1 Justine Henin-Hardenne led the un-seeds into the third round with a gritty three-set win over China's Shuai Peng, joined by Czech Klara Koukalova (d. Stosur), Slovak Katarina Srebotnik (d. (LL) Perebiynis in three), and Croat Jelena Kostanic (d. Strycova).

"I need to play a lot of matches and I need to be on the court," Henin-Hardenne said. "Mentally I've been strong in the third set."

On Thursday's schedule are Patty "Handshake" Schnyder vs. Klara "Kouky" Koukalova, Venus vs. Tatiana "Hot Pants" Golovin, Henin-Hardenne vs. Benesova, Nuria Llagostera "Pancho" Vives vs. Dementieva, Davenport vs. Kutuzova, Kostanic vs. Petrova, Asagoe vs. Vaidisova, and Srebotnik vs. Sugiyama.