Taiwan’s Chan Yung-jan was defeated by Slovakia’s Dominika Cibulkova 6-0, 6-2 in the second round of the women’s singles at the Australian Open yesterday.
Cibulkova, seeded 18, broke Chan’s serve immediately, after the latter had squandered five game points. The Slovakian then reeled off six straight games to take the first set in only 31 minutes.
With Cibulkova’s defeat of South Africa’s Chanelle Scheepers 6-0, 6-0 in the first round, she ended up winning 19 straight games at the tournament until Chan halted her run by winning the second game of yesterday’s second set.
However, Chan only managed to win one more game before the 19-year-old from Bratislava wrapped up her straight sets win.
Cibulkova served much better than her Taiwanese opponent, the former’s first-serve percentage was 76 percent, the latter’s only 56 percent.
In another second round clash, Serena Williams gave herself a “D-minus at best” for her 6-3, 7-5 win over Argentina’s Gisela Dulko, ranked 45th in the world.
Elena Dementieva improved her winning streak this year to 12 matches with 6-4, 6-1 win over Iveta Benesova.
Amelie Mauresmo rallied for a 4-6, 6-3, 6-2 win over Britain’s Elena Baltacha. Mauresmo, a former No. 1-ranked player now seeded 20th, advanced when Baltacha double-faulted on match point.
In the men’s singles, Rafael Nadal got top marks for his second straight match, a 6-2, 6-3, 6-2 win over Croatia’s Roko Karanusic. The Spaniard has dropped only 11 games in six sets and next faces German veteran Tommy Haas, who beat Flavio Cipolla of Italy, 6-1, 6-2, 6-1.
Fifth seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga showed flashes of brilliance and bravery as he survived a 195-minute marathon to down Ivan Ljubicic 6-7 (4/7), 7-6 (10/8), 7-6 (8/7), 6-2.
In the men’s doubles, Taiwan’s Lu Yen-hsun returned to earth with a bump yesterday after his stunning victory over David Nalbandian in the men’s singles the previous day. Teaming up with Germany’s Rainer Schuettler the pair suffered a 6-2, 6-1 thrashing by Pole Lukasz Kubot and Austrian Oliver Marach.
Kubot and Marach wrapped up the first set in only 33 minutes and things were no better for the Taiwanese/German combo in the second as their opponents wrapped up the win in only 67 minutes.
One consolation for Lu is that his short workout yesterday should leave him reasonably fresh for today’s third round singles clash with Tommy Robredo.
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