Russians Show The Way Ahead

Sydney Morning Herald

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, making 31 unforced errors in an erratic match 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 left 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, to set up a second-round clash with Marion Bartoli.

"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 match in almost a month.

"But I was very confident. I've been so well. I was just putting the ball back in the game and trying to find my game. 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 Jidkova, Evgenia Linetskaya and Sharapova.

Sharapova, the No.4 seed, endured some long and 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.

The five remaining Russian women, including seeds Anastasia Myskina, Elena Dementieva and Elena Likhovtseva, will try to join them in the second round when they play their first-round matches today.

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 84th-ranked Hungarian Petra Mandula.

Most seeds, however, survived, with Silvia Farina Elia (No.15), Fabiola Zuluaga (No.17), Amy Frazier (21), Magdalena Maleeva (22) and Shinobu Asagoe (28) notching straight-sets wins. Queenslander Samantha Stosur was last night eliminated in her first-round match against No.2 seed Amelie Mauresmo, AAP reports. Stosur's promising summer was cut short by the 6-2, 6-3 defeat.

Lleyton Hewitt will look to single-handedly ruin Arnaud Clement's summer when he begins his Australian Open campaign against the luckless Frenchman tonight.

For the third week in a row, Clement has drawn Hewitt early in a tournament Down Under and the 2001 Melbourne Park finalist won't fancy his chances of causing an upset after back-to-back losses to the world No.3 in Adelaide and Sydney.

Hewitt has beaten Clement in all six of their career meetings. "I'm probably feeling more confident than he is," Hewitt said.

© 2005 Sydney Morning Herald

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