Sharapova Wins in Return

ISTANBUL, Turkey - World No.2 Maria Sharapova made a successful return to the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour after a seven week injury lay-off, when she defeated Tsevetana Pironkova in straight sets at the Istanbul Cup on Tuesday. Another marquee name in the draw, Venus Williams, was also in action at the $200,000, Tier III event, easing past Tatiana Poutchek to take her place in the second round.

The day's only second round match saw the tournament's top seed Sharapova take on Bulgaria's Pironkova. The Russian No.1, making her first appearance on Tour since recovering from shoulder and hamstring injuries, was far from at her best against her teenage opponent, but she did just enough to take her place in the quarterfinals, recording a 64 76(1) victory.

The Sharapova was erratic throughout, squandering a 5-3 second set lead and coming within two points of being forced into a third set, before finally clinching the match on the tie-break. Nevertheless, as the 20-year-old Russian has not hit a ball in anger since her round of 16 defeat in Miami, she was understandably pleased to have got her clay court season off to a winning start.

"I think considering that it was my first competitive match in 7-8 weeks and that I've just had one of the biggest injuries of my career, it wasn't too bad." Sharapova said. "She's a very good player who's had some big wins in her career, so it was a nice test for me."

No.4 seed Williams produced an altogether more convincing display in her first round victory over experienced Belarusian Poutchek, requiring only 51 minutes to dispatch the 28-year-old and set up a second round meeting with Aravane Rezai. Williams has made a consistent start to the clay court season - reaching the semifinals and quarterfinals at Charleston and Warsaw respectively - and with Roland Garros less than a week away, the 26-year-old American appears to be running into form at just the right time. The world No.29 served magnificently throughout, failing to yield a single break point on her way to a commanding 61 62 victory.

"I'm obviously hoping to do well at Roland Garros, but right now my full concentration is on this tournament," Williamscsaid. "Every year I hope is my year. I've had great success in my career, so I'm going to use this experience to have a lot more in the future."

Patty Schnyder was another seed to have an easy day's work on Tuesday, racing into the second round with a 61 61 victory over Chan Yung-Jan. Such was the Swiss player's dominance, she allowed her 17-year-old opponent to win a mere 17 points in the whole match and completed her demolition job in just 46 minutes.

"There aren't many times when you have an easy day like that, so I'll take it," Schnyder said. "I think she was coming from playing on hard court, while I've been on clay for many weeks now, I've definitely got a lot of confidence going into Roland Garros. I've had a good two weeks in Berlin and Rome, so I feel ready and I'm looking forward to going to Paris."

In the second round Schnyder will come up against another teenager in the form of Vania King, who defeated local wildcard entrant Ipek Senoglu 63 75 in her first-round match. The young American started the match well, but despite taking the first set was never fully able to stamp her authority on proceedings and was made to battle right until to the end by her lower-ranked opponent.

Monday also saw surprise first-round exits for No.6 seed Anna-Lena Groenefeld and No.8 Sania Mirza. Groenefeld has won only four matches this year and after losing the first set against Columbia's Catalina Castaño, the 21-year-old German quickly slipped to her 10th defeat of the season. Castaño's reward for her 76(3) 62 win is a second-round clash with Belorussia's Ekaterina Dzehalevich, who triumphed over fellow qualifier Anna Tatishvili, 63 75.

Mirza, like Sharapova, is on the comeback trail, but since returning from a right knee ligament injury the Indian No.1 has failed to recapture the form that saw her reach two semifinals in the opening month of the season. Against Meghann Shaughnessy, the 20-year-old once again looked rusty and after dropping a closely contested first set, she fell away in the second to succumb to her second consecutive first-round defeat. Lying in wait for Shaughnessy in the next round is Russian qualifier Ekaterina Afinogenova, who won a gripping encounter with Germany's Sandra Kloesel, 63 57 63.

The only other first-round match saw Latvian qualifier Anastasija Sevastova brush aside the challenge of Belarusian Anastasiya Yakimova, 61 63. Meeting the 17-year-old in the next round will be the in-form No.5 seed Alona Bondarenko, in what promises to be just one of several fascinating clashes scheduled to take place on Wednesday.

In the doubles competition, top seeds Chan and Mirza got their title challenge off to the perfect start, overcoming the all-Romanian duo of Sorana Cirstea and Agnes Szatmari, 63 61. Their quarterfinal opponents will be the German-Greek partnership of Kloesel and Anna Koumantou, after they edged out Stella Menna and Kateryna Polunina 46 64 108 in a thrilling opening-round tussle.

On the other side of the draw an intriguing family versus family encounter was scheduled last out on Court 1, as the Bondarenko sisters Alona and Kateryna were pitted against Agnieszka and Urszula Radwanska. The first set certainly did not disappoint, with the two families serving up some wonderful tennis. However, after dropping the opening set the Bondarenkos appeared to run out of steam and succumbed to their younger opponents 64 61, in little more than an hour.

The only other team to advance on Monday was the Australian duo of Casey Dellacqua and Christina Horiatopoulos, who benefited from the withdrawal of No.2 seeds King and Jelena Kostanic Tosic because of a strain in the American's lower back. (WTA)