Seeds Golovin, Sugiyama Advance in Dull Day at WTA Toronto

Posted on August 16, 2005

In a starless opener, both bottom seeds advanced Monday at the WTA stop in Toronto, with No. 16 Tatiana Golovin defeating Karolina Sprem in straight sets, and No. 17 Ai Sugiyama outlasting wildcard Jelena Kostanic in three.

Unseeded players into the second round were American qualifier Laura Granville (d. Vinci), Argentine Gisela Dulko (d. Domachowska), Japan's Shinobu Asagoe (d. (WC) Wozniak), Spain's Anabel Medina Garrigues (d. (Q) Safarova 6-1 in the third), France's Marion Bartoli (d. Kirilenko who retired with a knee injury), French lucky loser Stephanie Cohen-Aloro (d. (Q) Sfar), Madagascar's Dally Randriantefy (d. (Q) Uberoi), and Venezuela's Maria Vento-Kabchi (d. Pelletier 0-and-1).

Four-time Canadian Open winners Martina Navratilova and Monica Seles officially opened the Toronto facility on Monday night as Tennis Canada's guests of honor.

The event has been hit with no-shows from top players Lindsay Davenport (back injury), Maria Sharapova (chest muscle), Alicia Molik (inner-ear infection), and Venus Williams (illness) among others.

On tap for Tuesday in Toronto are (2) Mauresmo vs. Randriantefy, (3) Kuznetsova vs. Anabel "Funky Cold" Medina Garrigues, (5) Serena vs. Cohen-Aloro, (10) Dechy vs. Fabiola "The Fabulous One" Zuluaga, (11) Jankovic vs. Li, (12) Ivanovic vs. Garbin, (13) Daniela "Stick Girl" Hantuchova vs. Jidkova, (14) Pennetta vs. Sanchez Lorenzo, (15) Safina vs. Nuria Llagostera "Pancho" Vives, Craybas vs. Sesil "The Mouth" Karatantcheva, Dubois vs. Ant. Serra "Nevada" Zanetti, Chakvetadze vs. Vaidisova, Martinez vs. Groenefeld, Razzano vs. Ruano Pascual, Zheng vs. Ma. Emilia Salerni, Linetskaya vs. Diaz Oliva, and Fujiwara vs. Camerin.