Mauresmo Wins in Return at Berlin

BERLIN, Germany -  Wednesday was a day for catch-up at the $1,340,000 Qatar Telecom German Open, which was deterred by several rain showers the previous day. 23 singles matches were completed and 12 doubles matches, with the tournament now up to speed and entering the third round (singles) and second round (doubles) on Thursday. All top eight singles seeds were in action and all were successful in advancing to the third round.

Top seed Justine Henin swept to a 61 61 victory over wildcard Tatjana Malek and will face Italy's Maria Elena Camerin in the next round. Henin is a three-time Berlin titlist (2002, 2003, 2005) and holds a substantial edge over any opponent on clay, having won 11 of her 32 career singles titles on this surface.

No.2 seed Amelie Mauresmo made a winning return after a two month injury lay-off, defeating Yan Zi 63 63. Mauresmo was forced to sit out of competition due to an appendectomy prior to the Sony Ericsson Open in Miami. She will face Julia Vakulenko in the next round, who stretched Mauresmo to three sets in their only previous meeting at the 2004 US Open's second round.

Several seeds in the 9-16 range were upset in Berlin on Wednesday, with No.11 seed Hantuchova being overcome by qualifier Zuzana Ondraskova 61 63 in the first round. Ondraskova later had to play her second round match and fell to Peng Shuai 75 61.

Anna Chakvetadze, the tournament's No.9 seed, lost to Lucie Safarova 64 64 in the second round. In addition, No.13 Shahar Peer and No.14 Li Na also fell out of singles competition in the second round. Peer and Li Na are both alive in doubles, with Peer partnering with Dinara Safina and Li Na with Jelena Jankovic.

The fifth seeded doubles team of Srebotnik/Sugiyama advanced to the second round, along with No.7 seed Groenefeld/Santangelo. Doubles action on Thursday will treat fans to top seeded teams of Raymond/Stosur as they face Alona and Kateryna Bondarenko and Black/Huber taking on Bremond/Tu.  (WTA)