The Hindu : Sport : Venus and Safina through to third round

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Aug 29, 2008
ePaper | Mobile/PDA Version

Sport

Sport

Venus and Safina through to third round

Jankovic toughs it out against Arvidsson; Roddick and Djokovic advance easily

— PHOTO: AP

SURGING AHEAD: Dinara Safina proved too good for Roberta Vinci in their second round tie on Thursday.

NEW YORK: Two-time champion Venus Williams defeated Rossana de los Rios of Paraguay 6-0, 6-3 in the second round of the U.S. Open here on Thursday.

Venus kept the favourites on the fast track by overwhelming Rossana in less than an hour. The seventh-seeded Venus won on her fifth match point after 59 minutes. She will next play Alona Bondarenko who beat Sabine Lisicki 6-4, 1-6, 6-4.

Meanwhile, the Russian sixth seed Dinara Safina overcame a couple of concentration lapses to defeat Italy’s Roberta Vinci 6-4, 6-3 to move into the third round.

Safina established a 3-0 lead in the opening set and a 3-1 advantage in the second but each time seemed to lose her focus, allowing a scrambling Vinci to break back and threaten a fightback.

However, Safina averted the danger by outclassing Vinci with her powerful serves and searing groundstrokes.

The Russian, who has a 17-1 win-loss record since Wimbledon, will next face Switzerland’s Timea Bacsinszky.

On the men’s side, No. 10 Stanislas Wawrinka swept aside Wayne Odesnik of the United States in straight sets.

Bopanna-Qureshi lose

In the doubles event, Rohan Bopanna and his Pakistan partner Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi lost to the French combination of Marc Gicquel and Sebastien Grosjean 5-7, 3-6 in the first round.

On Wednesday, the second-seeded Jelena Jankovic hobbled to victory on centre court while Andy Roddick and Novak Djokovic coasted through, the latter despite a twisted ankle. Jankovic struggled with fatigue but held on to beat Sofia Arvidsson 6-3, 6-7(5), 7-5 in their second round match.

In the third set of his first round match against Arnaud Clement, Djokovic, the third seed, twisted his left ankle while lunging for a shot on the main Arthur Ashe Stadium, but had no trouble closing the match out 6-3, 6-3, 6-4 after a 10 minute time out to get the ankle taped. Djokovic reached the final in New York last year where he lost to four-time reigning champion Roger Federer and has won three titles this year including his first Grand Slam title at the Australian Open.

“I played good tennis today, enough to win,” Djokovic said.

“I had to be consistent and try to get a high percentage of my first serves in,” Djokovic said. “I didn’t return so well and I had a lot of ups and downs and big frustrations.

“But it is the first match. It is always the trickiest one but hopefully the next one will be better.”

Djokovic will face American Robert Kendrick in the second round. He expects the leg to be almost as good as new by then.

“It is going to be a good two days,” Djokovic said of his ankle. “After it happened I was thinking more of it than I was the pain, so it is not really a big deal.

“But in a certain moment I felt big pain, so I had to get it taped.”

In another encounter, the eighth-seeded Roddick beat Fabrice Santoro 6-2, 6-2, 6-2.

Roddick, the 2003 champion, lost just two points on his booming service as he raced through the opening set in 25 minutes and never looked back in booking a second-round match against up-and-coming teenager Ernests Gulbis of Latvia. The 35-year-old Santoro, who extended his men’s record by playing in his 65th grand slam, had beaten Roddick in their last meeting on the indoor carpet in Lyon in 2007.

The eighth-seeded Roddick blasted 41 winners past the overmatched Frenchman, including 15 aces. The American lost just four points on his first serve the entire match.

“I felt good. That’s the best I’ve felt in four, five months,” Roddick

Sour note

Santoro, by contrast, was thoroughly demoralised and on the last point of the 87-minute match stood passively and never lifted his racket as Roddick signed off with an ace.

The Frenchman had to duck away from a Roddick rocket serve on the previous point that whizzed straight at him at 140 miles an hour (225 kph).

“I was really disappointed the way he had served the point before. He served right at me for sure,” Santoro said, before cooling off and applauding Roddick’s overall performance.

“He’s a good guy,” Santoro said. “I like him.”

Roddick said he was aiming up the middle and missed. “I wasn’t going for him…it was a bad miss. I was really excited about the way I was playing. To end it that way was a little disappointing.”

Jankovic has six career singles titles but just one to show for her consistent play this year. The pesky Swede Arvidsson made Jankovic work for Wednesday’s win.

“It was really tough. I am completely out of breath,” second-seeded Jankovic said immediately after the two-hour, 45-minute match. “I was pushed to the limit.”

Jankovic moves through to the third round where she will face China’s Zheng Jie who beat Anabel Medina Garrigues of Spain 6-1, 6-4 on Wednesday. Zheng reached her semifinals at Wimbledon earlier this year.

Jankovic, who has suffered a string of injuries this year, took a couple of tumbles on Wednesday but got through the match unscathed.

Zvonareva upset

Five Russians, including four seeded players, advanced while Vera Zvonareva became the first seeded Russian casualty.

Beijing Olympic gold medallist Elena Dementieva beat Pauline Parmentier of France 6-2, 6-1. Dementieva, the runner-up in 2004, is making her 10th straight U.S. Open appearance. “You have to find a way to win,” said Dementieva. “The most important thing is to stay positive in the difficult moments in the match even when you feel tired.”

Eighth-seeded Zvonareva, another Russian Olympian, was sent crashing out of the event, losing her second round match 6-3, 6-3 to unseeded Tatiana Perebiynis.

Zvonareva was in the same side of the draw as Jankovic and Lindsay Davenport who beat another Russian Alisa Kleybanova 7-5, 6-3. Dementieva meets Great Britain’s Anne Keothavong who surprised 25th seeded Francesca Schiavone 6-2, 3-6, 6-4. — Agencies

THE RESULTS

Prefix denotes seeding

Women: Second round: 19-Nadia Petrova (Rus) bt Hsieh Su-wei (Tpe) 6-4, 6-2; Severine Bremond (Fra) bt 20-Nicole Vaidisova (Cze) 7-5, 6-3; 9-Agnieszka Radwanska (Pol) bt Mariana Duque Marino (Col) 6-0, 7-6(3); Timea Bacsinszky (Sui) bt Chan Yung-jan (Tpe) 6-3, 6-2; 6-Dinara Safina (Rus) bt Roberta Vinci (Ita) 6-4, 6-3; 18-Dominika Cibulkova (Svk) bt Ioana Raluca Olaru (Rom) 6-2, 6-2; 7-Venus Williams (USA) bt Rossana de Los Rios (Par) 6-0, 6-3.

23-Lindsay Davenport (USA) bt Alisa Kleybanova (Rus) 7-5, 6-3; 12-Marion Bartoli (Fra) bt Virginia Ruano (Esp) 6-4, 6-2; 14-Victoria Azarenka (Brs) bt Iveta Benesova (Cze) 6-2, 6-3; 21-Caroline Wozniacki (Den) bt Maria Elena Camerin (Ita) 6-1, 6-2; 29-Sybille Bammer (Aut) bt Aravane Rezai (Fra) 6-1; 7-5; Zheng Jie (Chn) bt 26-Anabel Medina (Esp) 6-1, 6-4; 2-Jelena Jankovic (Srb) bt Sofia Arvidsson (Swe) 6-3, 6-7(5), 7-5; 5-Elena Dementieva (Rus) bt Pauline Parmentier (Fra) 6-2, 6-1; Tatiana Perebiynis (Ukr) bt 8-Vera Zvonareva (Rus) 6-3, 6-3; 28-Katarina Srebotnik (Slo) bt Yvonne Meusburger (Aut) 6-1, 6-3; Magdalena Rybarikova (Slo) bt Tamira Paszek (Aut) 6-1, 6-2.

Men: Second round: Jurgen Melzer (Aut) bt Jiri Vanek (Cze) 6-0, 6-2, 6-2; Kei Nishikori (Jpn) bt Roko Karanusic (Cro) 6-1, 7-5 (retd.); 10-Stanislas Wawrinka (Sui) bt Wayne Odesnik (USA) 6-4, 7-6(6), 6-2.

First round: 8-Andy Roddick (USA) bt Fabrice Santoro (Fra) 6-2, 6-2, 6-2; Ernests Gulbis (Lat) bt Thomas Johansson (Swe) 7-5, 6-1, 7-6(3); Robert Kendrick (USA) bt Nicolas Mahut (Fra) 7-6(3), 6-4, 5-7, 7-5; Chris Guccione (Aus) bt Jesse Levine (USA) 6-3, 3-6, 7-6(6), 7-6(6); 30-Marin Cilic (Cro) bt Julien Benneteau (Fra) 4-6, 7-5, 6-3, 6-7(7), 6-2; 3-Novak Djokovic (Srb) bt Arnaud Clement (Fra) 6-3, 6-3, 6-4; 28-Radek Stepanek (Cze) bt Potito Starace (Ita) 7-5, 6-3, 6-1; Victor Hanescu (Rou) bt Albert Montanes (Esp) 7-6(5), 6-3, 2-6, 6-3; Robby Ginepri (USA) bt Amer Delic (USA) 6-1, 6-2, 7-6(5); Carlos Moya (Esp) bt Aisam Qureshi (Pak) 6-4, 6-7(5), 7-6(2), 6-2; 26-Dmitry Tursunov (Rus) bt Eduardo Schwank (Arg) 7-5, 4-6, 7-5, 7-6(5); 19-Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (Fra) bt Santiago Ventura (Esp) 6-7(3), 6-4, 6-2, 6-3.

Doubles: Men: First round: Marc Gicquel & Sebastien Grosjean (Fra) bt Rohan Bopanna (Ind) & Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi (Pak) 7-5, 6-3.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Sport