Davenport, Sharapova Pull from WTA Philadelphia

Posted on November 2, 2005

Bulgarian teen Sesil Karatantcheva ended the 2005 campaign of No. 9 seed Vera Zvonareva Tuesday at the WTA stop in Philadelphia, ousting the Russian 7-5, 6-3 to move into the second round.

One year ago at Philly the oft-weeping Zvonareva played her way into the WTA Championships field, but this week is left behind the field of elite eight women, with her countrywoman Elena Dementieva and American Venus Williams remaining in contention for the final open berth in L.A.

No. 7 seed Nicole Vaidisova (d. Henke), stretching her win streak to 16 and shooting for her fourth consecutive title, moved into the second round along with unseeded players Martina Sucha (d. (LL) Foretz 6-1 in the third), Lisa Raymond (d. Stosur 6-1 in the third), and Ai Sugiyama (d. Benesova).

"It's been a great year and I've had some really good results that I'm happy about," Vaidisova said. "This is my last tournament so I want to do as well as possible and then rest a little bit."

Tournament officials were downtrodden Tuesday when both top seeds withdrew -- Lindsay Davenport with the flu, and Maria Sharapova with a right thumb sprain.

"I am looking forward to getting healthy and defending my year-end No. 1 ranking at the WTA Championships in Los Angeles next week," Davenport said.

Scheduled for Wednesday in Philly are Craybas vs. Peschke, Poutchek vs. Petrova, Dementieva vs. Bachmann, Haynes vs. Sucha, Panova vs. Washington, and Vaidisova vs. Koukalova.