Mauresmo, Serena Win; 3 Seeds Ousted at Aussie Open

Posted on January 17, 2007

Three lower seeds went tumbling and a Top 10 seed received a scare Wednesday at the Australian Open, where the women were still completing first-round matches after court temperatures in excess of 120 degrees the previous day cancelled 10 scheduled encounters.

Orchestrating upsets on the day were Czech Lucie Safarova who ousted No. 14 seed Francesca Schiavone 6-3, 6-3, 17-year-old Belarussian Victoria Azarenka who overwhelmed No. 18 Marion Bartoli 6-0, 7-5, and 20-year-old Belarussian Anastasiya Yakimova who outlasted No. 23 Ai Sugiyama 10-8 in the third set.

No. 7 seed Elena Dementieva survived a hiccup in the second set to roll Martina Muller 6-0 in the third, and fellow Russian and No. 26 seed Maria Kirilenko came back from losing the first to defeat Julia Vakulenko.

Other seeds putting up "W"s were (2) Amelie Mauresmo (d. Poutchkova), (3) Svetlana Kuznetsova (d. Adamczak), (5) Nadia Petrova (d. Dulko), (8) Patty Schnyder (d. Brengle), (9) Dinara Safina (d. Bychkova), (10) Nicole Vaidisova (d. Sequera), (11) Jelena Jankovic (d. Ruano Pascual), (15) Daniela Hantuchova (d. Cornet), (16) Shahar Peer (d. Tu, bagel in the second), (17) Anna-Lena Groenefeld (d. Zahlavova), (19) Na Li (d. Bovina), (20) Tatiana Golovin (d. Ondraskova, bagel in the second), (21) Katarina Srebotnik (d. Benesova), and (22) Vera Zvonareva (d. Obziler).

"It's never easy when you go out there and you don't know the player you're up against," said Mauresmo who nonetheless eased through. "She was pretty talented and she could really play some great shots so I was very serious and I'm very happy to go through."

Unseeded Serena Williams moved into the third round Wednesday with a 7-6(4), 6-2 win over Anne Kremer.

"It was tough to start with -- she was really serious and played really well," said Williams who was down a break in the first set. "I definitely feel like I'm getting better with each match."

Williams will next have a test against the No. 5-seeded Petrova.

Seeds in action and other matches of interest on Thursday in Melbourne are (1) Sharapova vs. Rodionova, (4) Clijsters vs. Morigami, (24) Stosur vs. Kostanic, (6) Hingis vs. Kudryavtseva, Molik vs. Kanepi, (13) Ivanovic vs. Radwanska, (15) Hantuchova vs. Loit, (8) Schnyder vs. Peng, (9) Safina vs. Fedossova, Nakamura vs. Mirza, (19) Li vs. Dominguez Lino, (22) Zvonareva vs. Paszek, (30) Garbin vs. Voracova, (29) A.Bondarenko vs. Razzano, (12) Chakvetadze vs. Granville, and (17) Groenefeld vs. Harkleroad.