Fuente: © Australian Open
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AUSTRALIAN OPEN: Mixed Day One For Williams Sisters

/noticias.info/ by Andrew Wu
Monday, 16 January, 2006


Serena Williams has scraped through to the second-round of Australian Open 2006, but the news was not all good for the Williams sisters with Venus bundled out of the tournament earlier on Day One by Bulgarian teenager Tszvetana Pironkova.

Thirteenth seed Serena appeared to be cruising in her first round clash with China's Li Na before a self-confessed 'choke' saw her lose the second set in a tie-break, but she regained her composure to register the 6-3 6-7 (7/1) 6-2 win on Rod Laver Arena.

Former world No.1 Venus was not so lucky over on Vodafone Arena, where she committed 65 unforced errors on her way to a 6-2 0-6 7-9 defeat at the hands of world No.94 Pironkova, who was making her Grand Slam debut.

"I think she's a very good player, but also I had close to 70 unforced errors. I mean, if I'm not shooting myself in the foot like that, then I'm going to be able to most likely be the victor," Venus Williams said.

The world No.10 is the second major casualty of the women's draw after ninth seed Elena Dementieva served 12 double faults and hit 37 unforced errors on her way to a 5-7 2-6 loss to German Julia Schruff.

Other seeds to have departed so far include French teenager Tatiana Golovin, beaten 6-4 4-6 6-4 by Italian Mara Santangelo, while Ai Sugiyama and Anabel Medina Garrigues, the tournament's No.24 and 26 seeds respectively, both lost in straight sets.

But last year's finalist Lindsay Davenport, fourth seed Maria Sharapova and 2004 champion Justine Henin-Hardenne all recorded 6-2 6-1 victories to progress to the second-round.

Sharapova outclassed German Sandra Kloesel, slamming 20 winners to three, while Henin-Hardenne overcame 18 unforced errors to oust Pole Marta Domachowska.

Davenport looked rusty in the first set as she shook off her cobwebs against Australian wildcard Casey Dellacqua before dropping just two points on serve in the second.

Awaiting the top seed in the next round will be Croatian Karolina Sprem, who was too good for Ukrainian Alona Bondarenko 6-4 6-2.

Sprem, the world No.66, made it through to the fourth round at Melbourne Park last year.

Slovakian Daniela Hantuchova, the 17th seed, did it the hard way, dropping the first set against world No.101 Saori Obata of Japan, before fighting back to win 3-6 6-3 6-0, while Serb 23rd seed Jelena Jankovic also advanced in three over American Jill Craybas.

Russian sixth seed Nadia Petrova was an easy victor over Australian Sophie Ferguson 6-2 6-1 while 2004 US Open champion Svetlana Kuznetsova despatched Australian wildcard Lauren Breadmore 6-1 6-3.

Former world No.4 Jelena Dokic came within centimetres of making a triumphant return to Melbourne Park, three times holding a match point on her way to a 6-3 5-7 1-6 defeat to Frenchwoman Virginie Razzano.

Playing for the first time at Melbourne Park since 2001, Dokic thought she had the match won in the second set but a baseline call on match point was ruled against her. notas_de_prensa_archivo