China’s Li Na got off to a flying start with a convincing victory over Lilia Osterloh in the Pan Pacific Open tennis tournament in Japan on Tuesday.
TOKYO: China’s Li Na got off to a flying start with a convincing victory over Lilia Osterloh in the Pan Pacific Open tennis tournament in Japan on Tuesday. The Chinese sixth seed, who reached the Australian Open fourth round earlier this month, pulled off a straightforward 6-3 6-2 victory over the American qualifier.
But eighth seed Daniela Hantuchova of Slovakia became the first seed to fall when she crashed to a 6-4 6-4 defeat to Italy’s Roberta Vinchi, while fifth seed Ana Ivanovic of Serbia outclassed American Shenay Perry 6-4 6-2.
“I played one bad game in each set to give her (Vinci) the break,” lamented Hantuchova, ranked 18th against Vinci’s 119th.
The 24-year-old Li attributed her win to Jiang Shan, her coach and husband, who has been working with her after her semifinal loss to Sania Mirza of India at the Asian Games in Doha in December. “I lost to Sania easily. After that, I had five days off, so I was back to my home town and talked to my husband. The Chinese federation allowed me to have him as a coach,” said Li, ranked 17th in the world. “It’s more easy for me to communicate, but he’s not here, he couldn’t get a visa.”
In the second round, Li will play either Samantha Stosur of Australia or Vera Zvonareva of Russia in the same bottom quarter with Martina Hingis, to whom Li lost in the Australian Open fourth round. “This tournament is so strong, everyone is tough, so for me, I just want to play my game. I hoped I can win the first round. I did that. Now I hope I can win the second round,” Li said.
World number one Maria Sharapova and the other top three seeds — former world number one Hingis, defending champion Elena Dementieva of Russia and Jelena Jankovic of Serbia — received first-round byes.
Dementieva, the defending champion here, said she was looking forward to a re-match against Hingis. A year ago, she had pulled off a lopsided 6-2 6-0 win in the final here over Hingis to claim her biggest career title. “For me, it was the biggest win. I always did well after the big win against Martina in the final and it’s very nice to come back with such a good memory here,” the Russian third seed said. Dementieva is on course for a semifinal showdown against Hingis. The Swiss Miss recently got engaged to Radek Stepanek.
Erratic Becker advances
In Miami, Benjamin Becker did just enough to record a win at the $416,000 Delray Beach International. It was not the form that saw him beat Andre Agassi in the American’s final professional tennis match. The German fourth seed missed almost every other first serve but still had enough firepower to beat American Kevin Kim 7-6 6-3 to win his first round-robin match.
Elsewhere, eighth-seeded Vince Spadea sported metallic silver shorts for his evening match, and broke Germany’s Simon Greul five times before winning 6-2 7-5. Spadea, who lives in nearby Boca Raton, reached the semifinals at Delray Beach last year before losing to the eventual winner, Tommy Haas of Germany.
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