Sharapova v Davenport; Four Seeds Fall at Australian Open
Posted on January 15, 2008Four seeded women exited the Australian Open Tuesday, led by last year's Wimbledon runner-up and No. 10 seed Marion Bartoli of France, who won the first set but was then outlasted by Swede Sofia Arvidsson.
Other players making exits were No. 16 Dinara Safina who lost in three sets to Sabine Lisicki of Germany, No. 20 Agnes Szavay who was topped 7-5 in the third by Russian Ekaterina Makarova, and No. 22 Lucie Safarova who bowed in straight sets to Catalina Castano of Colombia.
Other seeds who struggled into the second round were No. 24 Na Li (24) who outlasted Severine Bremond 6-4 in the third, No. 27 Maria Kirilenko (27) who fought off a three-set upset bid by American Meilen Tu, and No. 28 Katarina Srebotnik who came from a set down to beat Lourdes Dominguez Lino 9-7 in the third.
World No. 2 Svetlana Kuznetsova began her Australian Open bid with a 6-3, 6-1 thrashing of French veteran Nathalie Dechy.
"I started a little bit slowly -- it's a slightly different surface to the one we had in Sydney last week, so it took me a bit of time to get used to it," Kuznetsova said. "But I think I made up for the slow start. In the end it was a pretty good match."
Other Top 10-seeded winners were (4) Ana Ivanovic (d. Sorana Cirstea), (6) Anna Chakvetadze (d. Andrea Petkovic who retired with injury), (8) Venus Williams (d. Yan), and (9) Daniela Hantuchova (d. King).
"It's no secret that I was panicking a little bit in the first set, just trying to find my game," Ivanovic said of her wispy, hard-hitting 17-year-old Romanian opponent Cirstea. "First rounds are never easy. She's a new, up-and-coming player. I think she has a bright future in front of her. I didn't really know what to expect in the beginning, and I'm really happy I managed to fight through that first set. It wasn't easy."
On court tonight is the meeting of the tournament thus far in second-round play where (5) Maria Sharapova takes on former No. 1 and new mother Lindsay Davenport.
"It will be the first Grand Slam winner I've played since being back," said Davenport, who is 1-4 head-to-head against Sharapova. "And she's a great player. She's one of the few players I don't have a winning record against probably in the draw. We play very similar styles. She's outplayed me the last couple times we played."
Other matches of note include (1) Justine Henin vs. Russian Olga Poutchkova, (12) Nicole Vaidisova vs. Aussie hope Alicia Molik, Aussie Casey Dellacqua vs. (15) Patty Schnyder, China's Meng Yuan vs. (7) Serena Williams, (18) Amelie Mauresmo vs. Russian Yaroslava Shvedova, and an all-French match-up in riser Aravane Rezai vs. (13) Tatiana Golovin.
Other players making exits were No. 16 Dinara Safina who lost in three sets to Sabine Lisicki of Germany, No. 20 Agnes Szavay who was topped 7-5 in the third by Russian Ekaterina Makarova, and No. 22 Lucie Safarova who bowed in straight sets to Catalina Castano of Colombia.
Other seeds who struggled into the second round were No. 24 Na Li (24) who outlasted Severine Bremond 6-4 in the third, No. 27 Maria Kirilenko (27) who fought off a three-set upset bid by American Meilen Tu, and No. 28 Katarina Srebotnik who came from a set down to beat Lourdes Dominguez Lino 9-7 in the third.
World No. 2 Svetlana Kuznetsova began her Australian Open bid with a 6-3, 6-1 thrashing of French veteran Nathalie Dechy.
"I started a little bit slowly -- it's a slightly different surface to the one we had in Sydney last week, so it took me a bit of time to get used to it," Kuznetsova said. "But I think I made up for the slow start. In the end it was a pretty good match."
Other Top 10-seeded winners were (4) Ana Ivanovic (d. Sorana Cirstea), (6) Anna Chakvetadze (d. Andrea Petkovic who retired with injury), (8) Venus Williams (d. Yan), and (9) Daniela Hantuchova (d. King).
"It's no secret that I was panicking a little bit in the first set, just trying to find my game," Ivanovic said of her wispy, hard-hitting 17-year-old Romanian opponent Cirstea. "First rounds are never easy. She's a new, up-and-coming player. I think she has a bright future in front of her. I didn't really know what to expect in the beginning, and I'm really happy I managed to fight through that first set. It wasn't easy."
On court tonight is the meeting of the tournament thus far in second-round play where (5) Maria Sharapova takes on former No. 1 and new mother Lindsay Davenport.
"It will be the first Grand Slam winner I've played since being back," said Davenport, who is 1-4 head-to-head against Sharapova. "And she's a great player. She's one of the few players I don't have a winning record against probably in the draw. We play very similar styles. She's outplayed me the last couple times we played."
Other matches of note include (1) Justine Henin vs. Russian Olga Poutchkova, (12) Nicole Vaidisova vs. Aussie hope Alicia Molik, Aussie Casey Dellacqua vs. (15) Patty Schnyder, China's Meng Yuan vs. (7) Serena Williams, (18) Amelie Mauresmo vs. Russian Yaroslava Shvedova, and an all-French match-up in riser Aravane Rezai vs. (13) Tatiana Golovin.