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Venus loses, Serena gets scare at Aussie
(AP)
Updated: 2006-01-17 09:05
Top-ranked Lindsay Davenport, 2004 Wimbledon champion Maria Sharapova and
French Open winner Justine Henin-Hardenne were among the 10 seeded women to
advance Monday. Six were ousted, including No. 9 Elena Dementieva in addition to
No. 10 Venus Williams.
Russia's Maria
Sharapova blows kisses to the crowd after winning her match against
Germany's Sandra Kloesel at the Australian Open tennis tournament in
Melbourne January 16, 2006. [Reuters] | Among the
men, No. 2-seeded Andy Roddick, his big serve producing only seven aces, downed
Michael Lammer of Switzerland 6-4, 6-2, 6-2 in the first round. Masters Cup
champion David Nalbandian had some difficulty before overcoming Thai qualifier
Danai Udomchoke 6-2, 6-2, 1-6, 6-7 (4), 6-1.
Other men advancing were No. 7 Ivan Ljubicic, No. 8 Gaston Gaudio, No. 11
David Ferrer, No. 13 Robby Ginepri, No. 17 Radek Stepanek, No. 18 Mario Ancic
and No. 20 James Blake. Taylor Dent, Carlos Moya and Tim Henman were the major
casualties.
If the seedings hold, Roddick gets Nalbandian in the semifinals and
top-ranked Roger Federer in the final. More immediately, he faces South Africa's
Wesley Moodie in the second round. And Roddick can't get complacent following
his first-round exit at the last U.S. Open.
Federer opens Tuesday against wild card Denis Istomin of Uzbekistan, who is
ranked 195th and playing in his first top-tier event. Third-seeded Lleyton
Hewitt, who lost last year's final to Marat Safin, faces Robin Vik of the Czech
Republic.
Also Tuesday, three-time Australian Open champion Martina Hingis resumes her
comeback from retirement against Russia's Vera Zvonareva.
No. 2 Kim Clijsters, the U.S. Open champion, is to start against Cho
Yoon-jeong of South Korea, provided she's recovered sufficiently from a hip
strain that forced her from last week's tuneup tournament in Sydney.
No. 3 Amelie Mauresmo, who won the season-ending WTA Championship last
November, plays China's Sun Tiantian.
The tournament started with all of the women's top 10 players for only the
second time in the Open era. The perfect 10 lasted only until the first
afternoon.
Venus Williams, a five-time major winner, had 11 winners and 10 errors in her
opening set and won it in 36 minutes. She missed a simple overhead in the
opening game of the second, and her game went downhill. She hit only five clean
winners in the second set and made 41 unforced in the third, hoping to counter
Pironkova's big forehand.
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