Former world No. 1 Maria Sharapova cruised into the second round of the WTA Birmingham grasscourt event on Monday with a 6-4, 6-2 win over Canada’s Stephanie Dubois.
The unseeded 22-year-old Russian, twice a winner at the Edgbaston Priory Club, will now play American 19-year-old Alexa Glatch, who defeated ninth-seeded compatriot Bethanie Mattek-Sands 7-6 (7/2), 6-3.
Sharapova, a three-time Grand Slam winner, reached the quarter-finals of the French Open last week after a 10-month absence due to a shoulder injury.
PHOTO: EPA
It was Sharapova’s first grasscourt match of the season but she raced into a 4-1 lead before surviving a break and closing out the set.
The 2004 Wimbledon champion was broken again early in the second set but hit back to break Dubois in games five and seven to complete a routine 74-minute victory.
Sharapova, who has risen to 73 in the world on the back of her French Open performance, said that she had felt right at home on the grass.
PHOTO: AFP
“I thought I did a really good job of getting into the groove of playing on grass again,” Sharapova said. “My goal today was to get used to the grass and my opponent, who I hadn’t played before.”
“I have tremendous memories from here. It seems that the fans have grown up with me here as I have played here since I was younger. That’s one of the reasons why I keep coming back,” she said.
In another first round clash Olga Govortsova of Belarus beat Taiwan’s Chan Yung-jan 7-6 (9/7), 6-2.
Britain’s Naomi Cavaday also booked a place in the second round on the tournament’s opening day, beating America’s Julie Ditty 6-2, 7-6 (7/2).
In an all-British first-round tie, Melanie South defeated wild card Katie O’Brien in three sets, 6-4, 1-6, 7-6 (7/5).
■HEWITT STORMS TO WIN
AFP, LONDON
Four-time champion Lleyton Hewitt made a storming start on the first day of the ATP Queen’s Club grasscourt event on Monday with a 6-1, 6-0 victory over Argentina’s Eduardo Schwank.
Hewitt, a former world No. 1 and Wimbledon champion in 2002, looked as comfortable on grass as ever as he took just 44 minutes to see off his opponent, the world No.109.
The 15th-seeded Australian, champion at Queen’s in 2000, 2001, 2002 and 2006, will play Portugal’s Frederico Gil, a 6-1, 6-3 winner against Spain’s Daniel Gimeno-Traver, in the second round.
Fellow seeds Feliciano Lopez and Guillermo Garcia-Lopez, both Spaniards, also progressed to the next round with straight sets victories.
Lopez, the 10th seed, beat the USA’s Robert Kendrick 7-6 (7/3), 7-6 (7/3), while 16th seed Garcia-Lopez cruised past Lu Yen-hsun of Taiwan 6-1, 6-1.
Jeremy Chardy was the first seed to be knocked out.
The French 12th seed lost a fiercely contested first-set tie-break 12-10 to America’s Sam Querrey, who went on to complete a 7-6 (12/10), 6-4 win, while Russian No. 14 seed Mikhail Youzhny overcame Spain’s Oscar Hernandez 6-4, 6-2.
Serbia’s Janko Tipsarevic, who reached the last 16 at Wimbledon in 2007 and last year, suffered a surprising 6-0, 6-4 defeat to world No. 146 Nicolas Mahut of France.
Italy’s Andreas Seppi set up a second-round meeting with British top seed and world No. 3 Andy Murray, who received a bye, after coming from behind to defeat America’s Robby Ginepri 5-7, 7-6 (7/4), 6-3.
Murray’s seeding makes him the favorite for his home event, but the British fans had little to cheer on a day that saw Brit hopefuls Joshua Goodall and James Ward both eliminated.
Goodall lost to Luxembourg’s Gilles Muller, 6-3, 7-6 (9/7), while Ward went down 6-2, 6-3 to crowd-pleasing Cypriot Marcos Baghdatis.
Belgium’s Kristof Vliegen overcame Argentine Leonardo Mayer 7-6 (7/3), 6-4 and will now play US second seed Andy Roddick, another four-time champion at Queen’s.
■GERMANS TRIUMPH
REUTERS, HALLE, GERMANY
Germans Tommy Haas, Rainer Schuettler and Benjamin Becker reached the second round of the Halle tournament on Monday.
Haas, former world No. 2, thrilled the crowd by crushing Austrian Stefan Koubek 6-2, 6-2 in less than an hour.
Mixing his baseline play with deft serve and volleying, Haas twice broke the erratic Austrian in the first set.
The German, who missed much of last season due to injuries, broke left-hander Koubek again twice in the second set to cruise to victory in 59 minutes.
Haas, who was only five points away from beating Roger Federer in the fourth round at the French Open last week, said he had carried his good form over to grass.
“There is definitely some of that momentum here,” Haas told reporters. “I just want to be fit and play well and when that happens your confidence grows.”
Wildcard Becker repaid the organizers with a 6-4, 6-4 victory over Victor Hanescu of Romania courtesy of an eye-popping first serve percentage of 94 percent.
The 27-year-old world No. 83 grabbed seven of his service games to love to recover from a 4-1 first-set deficit and wrap up the match after 59 minutes.
World No. 32 Schuettler completed German joy on the first day when he beat Frenchman Marc Gicquel 6-3, 6-4.
Fifth seed Dmitry Tursunov won his all-Russian first round clash against Igor Kunitsyn 7-5, 6-4 and 2007 champion Tomas Berdych beat fellow Czech Jan Hernych 6-4, 7-5.
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