Tennis Capsules: Venus Williams wins opener
STANFORD, Calif. — Serena Williams and big sister Venus know their newfound focus on doubles is sure to affect their energy in singles. They’re willing to make that sacrifice if it leads to more Grand Slam titles together.
Neither top-seeded Serena nor second-seeded Venus showed off their best tennis Tuesday night, each still doing plenty right for straight-set victories in their first-round singles matches at the Bank of the West Classic.
Serena broke serve three times in the opening set but needed a second-set tiebreaker to beat gutsy Li Na of China 6-3, 7-6 (6) only a couple of hours after Venus’ 6-2, 6-3 win over Stephanie Dubois of Canada in this $700,000 tournament at Stanford.
Both were back on court for their first competition since Serena beat Venus at Wimbledon.
After some post-Wimbledon down time, it wasn’t always pretty. Serena overcame seven double faults and showed her frustration at times.
While Venus looked far from sharp at times as she missed shots long and sent others into the net, she pulled out enough of her top shots when it mattered. Same for Serena.
They are excited about their doubles prospects, too.
"We kind of have this secret goal I can’t talk about," Venus Williams said.
After she and Dubois failed to hold serve through the first three games of the opening set, Williams cruised the rest of the way in the first meeting between the two.
"It was a great match to get my rhythm, hit a lot of balls and work on my shots," said Williams, who won titles here in 2000 and ‘02. "It’s all about the mentality. I usually adjust pretty quickly. ... I do want to try new and different things."
Still a little spacey — she admitted to some "brain freeze" — after a few weeks of sleeping in and relaxation following her Wimbledon runner-up showing to Serena, Williams said: "We love playing in L.A. I’m sorry, not L.A., I mean California. It feels like home for us."
Earlier Tuesday, Daniela Hantuchova of Slovakia outlasted defending champion Aleksandra Wozniak 6-4, 4-6, 7-5 in 2 hours, 33 minutes.
Wozniak, who recently took four weeks off, became the first Canadian in 20 years to capture a Tour title when she won the tournament last year.
In other first-round matches, eighth-seeded Marion Bartoli of France defeated Japan’s Ayumi Morita 7-6 (6), 6-3; Maria Kirilenko topped Anna Chakvetadze, the 2007 champion in this event, 6-4, 5-7, 7-6 (5); fourth-seeded Jelena Jankovic beat qualifier Angela Haynes 6-3, 6-1; Samantha Stosur upset sixth-seeded Dominika Cibulkova 6-4, 6-3; Sabine Lisicki beat American qualifier Lilia Osterloh 6-2, 6-3, and qualifier Alla Kudryavtseva of Russia downed France’s Julie Coin 6-1, 7-6 (5).
Isner upsets No. 7 seed Becker at L.A. Tennis Open
LOS ANGELES — John Isner upset No. 7 seed Benjamin Becker 7-6 (8), 7-6 (3), in the first round of the L.A. Tennis Open at UCLA on Tuesday.
The 6-foot-9 Isner, who had mononucleosis and was absent from the ATP Tour for three months, returned to action last week at Indianapolis, where he lost to eventual champion Robby Ginepri in the semifinals.
Isner said he was "maybe a little bit tired today" after Tuesday’s 2-hour, 5-minute win that came on the heels of four matches at Indianapolis.
"I’ve just got to get in a little better shape, match shape," he said. "When you take a month off and don’t do anything you lose a lot."
There were just two service breaks in the match, both in the second set. Becker got the first, to take a 3-1 lead, then had what he called "a 5-minute mental letdown" and lost his serve.
That was the only one of eight break points converted by Isner, but it got him back on serve and eventually into the tiebreaker, where he won the final four points.
No. 5 seed Igor Kunitsyn got his title bid under way with a 7-5, 6-2 win over qualifier Somdev Devvarman, an NCAA singles champion while at Virginia.
Ernests Gulbis beat Yen-Hsun Lu of Tapei, 7-5, 6-2; qualifier Ryan Sweeting topped Taylor Dent, 6-4, 2-6, 6-3, in a matchup of Americans; and qualifier Carsten Ball eliminated Marc Gicquel 6-2, 7-6 (6) in other early matches.
French Open champ Kuznetsova pulls out of Carson
CARSON, Calif. — French Open champion Svetlana Kuznetsova has pulled out of next week’s L.A. Women’s Tennis Championships due to a foot injury.
The hard-court tournament, to be held from Aug. 3-9, announced Kuznetsova’s withdrawal on Tuesday. She also missed the event last year.
The fifth-ranked Kuznetsova’s departure still leaves 10 of the world’s top 15 women in the field, including No. 1 Dinara Safina, the defending champion.
The L.A. Women’s Tennis Championships is part of the U.S. Open Series of tuneup events for the year’s last Grand Slam tournament.
Ferrero, Meltzer into 2nd round at Croatia Open
UMAG, Croatia — Juan Carlos Ferrero defeated Christophe Rochus of Belgium 6-3, 6-2 Tuesday in the first round of the Croatia Open.
The fifth-seeded Spaniard is playing in his first tour event since reaching the Wimbledon quarterfinals last month.
Fourth-seeded Juergen Meltzer of Austria also advanced, defeating Brian Dabul of Argentina 6-3, 7-5.
Fabio Fognini of Italy rallied to beat eighth-seeded Mischa Zverev of Germany 2-6, 6-3, 6-4, and Frederico Gil of Portugal topped Sergio Roitman of Argentina 7-5, 6-2.
Seventh-seeded Italian Andreas Seppi also advanced, ousting Juan Ignacio Chela of Argentina in three sets, 6-4, 2-6, 6-3.
Another Italian, Simone Bolleli, needed nearly two and a half hours to defeat qualifier Ruben Ramirez Hidalgo of Spain 7-6 (7), 3-6, 6-0.
Pablo Cuevas of Uruguay ousted wild card Croatian Ivan Dodig, 6-3, 6-1.
Potito Starace of Italy won 6-1, 6-3 over Grega Zemlja of Slovenia, who played as a replacement because Simon Gruel of Germany withdrew after fainting.
Top-seeded Nikolay Davidenko and No. 2 David Ferrer are scheduled to play Wednesday.
Top seeds upset at Istanbul Cup
ISTANBUL — Top-seeded Vera Zvonareva of Russia and second-seeded Patty Schnyder failed to reach the second round of the Istanbul Cup on Tuesday.
Mariya Koryttseva of Ukraine defeated Zvonareva 6-2, 1-6, 6-4, while Rossana De Los Rios of Paraguay edged Schnyder 7-6 (3), 2-6, 6-3 at the hard-court tournament.
Schnyder blamed her defeat on a lack of training coming off the Palermo Open earlier this month.
Anabel Medina Garrigues, the third seed, topped Anastasiya Yakimova of Belarus 6-4, 6-2.
Tennis star Maria Sharapova searches for her swing again
SAN JOSE, Calif. — The comeback trail is rarely easy, and Maria Sharapova's is no exception.
Nine months after surgery to repair the rotator cuff in her right shoulder, she is still working to regain the form that saw her win three Grand Slam titles and reach No. 1 in the world rankings. It's impossible to say whether she will recapture the dominance in time for the U.S. Open in late August, but Sharapova could get a few clues this week.
Entered in the Bank of the West Classic at Stanford for the first time, the Russian superstar will test herself in a field that features the Williams sisters and Wimbledon semifinalist Elena Dementieva.
Sharapova on Monday night defeated Ai Sugiyama of Japan, 6-4, 6-7 (6), 6-1.
So far, Sharapova's post-surgery results have been mixed. She followed an encouraging performance at the French Open, where she reached the quarterfinals, with a second-round loss at Wimbledon.
"I've put in a lot of work the last few weeks, and I still feel like I have a lot more work to do," says Sharapova, who is ranked 61st. "I have a few more weeks before the U.S. Open, and these tournaments are going to be crucial for my game."
Before the shoulder problems, tennis had treated Sharapova, 22, quite well. In addition to being one of the sport's glamour girls, she won Wimbledon in 2004 at 17, the U.S. Open two years later and the Australian Open last year. But the process that began when she took up tennis at age 4 — two years after her parents moved her from Western Siberia to a Black Sea resort town — took a toll on the shoulder.
The pain reached an apex last summer when she withdrew from a tournament in Montreal after two matches. Hoping that rest and rehabilitation would make it better, Sharapova skipped the Beijing Olympics and U.S. Open.
But the issue didn't go away.
"The crucial part in the whole thing was making a decision on the surgery," Sharapova said. "That was a pretty big deal because that was my first time having any type of surgery. You're thinking, 'I'm only (21) years old. I'm going under the knife, and I have to do this for my career.' There are so many questions you're asking yourself."
Sharapova, who has homes in Bradenton, Fla., and Los Angeles, had surgery in October in New York. Then came the long road back.
"When you wake up and you're not putting a tennis racket into your hand, you know that something is missing," Sharapova said. "I missed the competition so much, but I obviously knew I couldn't do anything about that."
Sharapova kept busy, learning more about her other passion: fashion. She also kept herself physically fit, though she has since discovered the difference between being fit and being fit for tennis.
"There is no better way of getting into shape as a tennis player than by playing tennis," she said.
Which brings us back to the Bank of the West Classic and the rest of the summer hard-court season building to the U.S. Open. Is Sharapova, who said this week that the shoulder is 100 percent, ready to reclaim her perch alongside tennis' elite?
"She is doing well," said Aleksandra Wozniak, the defending Bank of the West champion. "She's slowly coming back, and she's got to find her game and confidence. But the more she plays matches, the quicker she'll find her rhythm."
Even if her game remains a question, Sharapova's desire remains the same.
"I'd like to be a champion because I know what that feels like, and it feels pretty darn good," she said. "But I'm not here saying in a month and a half that I will be or I won't be. Nobody knows."
