JOIN USBartoli too strong for Rodionova
The 26-year-old Frenchwoman, one of four top 10 players taking part in the US Open tune-up, was forced to save three break points in the opening but was never threatened in setting up a second round meeting with Czech Klara Zakopalova.
Fifth seed Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland cruised into the second round by pounding Russia’s Ekaterina Makarova 6-1, 6-2 while eighth seed Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova came out on top of an all-Russian clash rallying past Vera Dushevina 3-6, 6-4, 6-3.
World number one Caroline Wozniacki arrives in New Haven searching for some hard court form after suffering opening match losses in her last two tournaments. The Dane, who received a first round bye, could not hope for a better place to discover some hard court success ahead of the US Open as she will attempt to become the 10th player in the
Open Era to win the same WTA title in four straight years.
Sania Mirza’s poor singles run in the WTA circuit continued as the Indian bowed out of the Texas Tennis Open in Dallas after receiving a straight-set bashing 3-6, 0-6 from German world number 22 Sabine Lisicki.
Andreev upsets Melzer
Russian Igor Andreev opened the Winston-Salem Open with an upset, blasting by second seeded Austrian Jurgen Melzer 7-5, 6-3 on Monday to reach the second round of ATP Tour’s newest tournament in Raleigh, North Carolina.
With most of the top players taking the week off ahead of the Aug 29-Sept 11 US Open, 79th ranked Andreev grabbed the spotlight by brushing aside the 17th ranked Melzer to notch his first win since Wimbledon. The loss added to a miserable North American hard court campaign for Melzer, who also fell at the first hurdle in Washington and last week in Cincinnati.
After first round exits in Montreal and Cincinnati, eighth seeded Cyprian Marcos Baghdatis got his season back on track with routine 7-5, 6-1 win over American Ryan Sweeting. Frenchman Julien Benneteau was also an easy winner rolling over Brazil’s Ricardo Mello 6-1, 6-3.