Russians March On As Pierce Falls By The Wayside

The Age

Tuesday January 18, 2005

EMMA QUAYLE

THE fresh face of women's tennis was emphasised on the Australian Open's first day, when four of the tournament's leading Russian chances secured second-round matches and one of three former champions, Mary Pierce, endured a frustrating straight-sets exit.

While the seeded Svetlana Kuznetsova and Maria Sharapova took trouble-free trips to the second round, Pierce dropped the opening game of her match against young French compatriot Stephanie Cohen-Aloro and struggled to work herself back into the match.

Down another break early in the second set, Pierce secured several break-back opportunities but could not snaffle any of them, hitting 31 unforced errors to lose 6-2, 6-2 to her more energetic opponent.

Ten years after she claimed the first of her two grand slam titles in Melbourne, the 30-year-old's exit leaves first-round winner Serena Williams and top seed Lindsay Davenport, who will play veteran Conchita Martinez today, as the only former champions left in the women's field.

Kuznetsova, the US Open winner and fifth seed, began her match against Jessica Kirkland at 11am and was all done by lunch, disposing of the young American in 43 minutes and in straight sets, 6-1, 6-1.

"I knew that I had better speed than she did, but she had already played some matches and it's always tough to play a qualifier," said Kuznetsova, playing her first tennis in almost a month. "But I was very confident. . . . I think it went pretty well for me."

Kuznetsova was followed into the second round by fellow Russians Vera Zvonareva, the No. 9 seed, 11th seed Nadia Petrova, Alina Jidova, Evgenia Linetskaya and Sharapova.

Sharapova, the No. 4 seed, endured some difficult points against 15-year-old Bulgarian qualifier Sesil Karatantcheva, but got through 6-3, 6-1 in exactly one hour to make the second round.

"She's a very dangerous opponent, especially in a first-round match, so I knew what to expect," said Sharapova. "I played her once before last year; she's a very aggressive player so I attacked her serve. I just played a good, solid first-round match. You can't expect the best from yourself but you know, it's good to get through."

Japan's Ai Sugiyama, meanwhile, was the highest seed to fall. The 16th seed lost to Slovakian Martina Sucha in straight sets and was followed out by the 30th seed, Flavia Pennetta, who lost in three sets to the 84th-ranked Hungarian Petra Mandula.

But most of the seeds survived the first round, with Silvia Farina Elia (No. 15), Fabiola Zuluaga (No. 17), Amy Frazier (21), Magdalena Maleeva (22) and Shinobu Asagoe (28) notching straight-sets wins.

© 2005 The Age

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