The Hindu : Sport / Tennis : Paes-Dlouhy advance to Japan Open quarterfinals

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Paes-Dlouhy advance to Japan Open quarterfinals

Li Na sends Serena packing

— PHOTO: AP

ELATED: Li Na is delighted after defeating World No. 1 Serena Williams in the second round of the Porsche Grand Prix in Stuttgart.

TOKYO: Top seed Leander Paes and Lukas Dlouhy began their campaign for back-to-back titles with a straight-set win over the Spanish pair of Guillermo Garcia-Lopez and Ivan Navarro in the first round of the $869,000 Japan Open tennis tournament on Thursday.

The Indo-Czech pair, which won the Thailand Open last week, beat the unseeded Spanish duo 6-4, 7-5 in one hour and 13 minutes to advance to the quarterfinals of the hard court event.

However, it was curtains for Rohan Bopanna and his American partner Eric Butorac, who put up a valiant fight against the second-seeded pair of Simon Aspelin and Julian Knowle but eventually lost 7-6(4), 6-7(4), 4-10 to bow out of the event.

In the women’s doubles, Shikha Uberoi and her American partner Mashona Washington crashed out of the championships after suffering a straight-set defeat against the second-seeded pair of Vania King and Tiantian Sun. The Indo-American pair lost 3-6, 4-6 to the American-Chinese pair in the tier III hard court event. They took home 35 ranking points and a purse of $1250 for their effort.

Meanwhile, top seed David Ferrer survived a scare before beating local favourite Takao Suzuki 4-6, 6-3, 6-2 to reach the men’s singles quarterfinals.

Second seed Andy Roddick joined him in the last eight, the big-serving American overpowering Austrian Juergen Melzer 7-6, 6-2 under floodlights.

Prize scalp

At Stuttgart, China’s Li Na claimed a famous scalp on Wednesday when she defeated World No. 1 Serena Williams 0-6, 6-1, 6-4 at the Porsche Grand Prix WTA tournament and pretty much cost the powerfully-built American her top world ranking.

Williams now looks set to lose her No. 1 ranking to nearest challenger Jelena Jankovic.

Also joining Li in the quarterfinals is Olympic champion Elena Dementieva who needed just over an hour to beat Austria’s Sybille Bammer 6-1, 6-4 in the second-round match.

Earlier, fifth seed Svetlana Kuznetsova was a big-name casualty in the first round as she lost in three sets to Switzerland’s Patty Schnyder.

The ‘Swiss Miss’ needed just over two hours to beat the 2004 U.S. Open champion and this year’s French Open semifinalist 6-4, 4-6, 7-5 to take her place in the second round.

The results: At Tokyo: Japan Open: Men: Third round: David Ferrer bt Takao Suzuki 4-6, 6-3, 6-2; Rainer Schuettler bt Mikhail Youzhny 6-3, 6-7(12), 6-4; Richard Gasquet bt Kei Nishikori 6-1, 6-2; Tomas Berdych bt Tommy Robredo 7-6(6), 6-2; Juan Martin Del Potro bt Jarkko Nieminen 6-1, 6-3; Fernando Gonzalez bt Amer Delic 6-4, 7-6(4); Andy Roddick bt Jurgen Melzer 7-6(2), 6-2; Viktor Troicki bt Jo-Wilfried Tsonga 5-7, 2-1 (retd.).

Women: Second round: Caroline Wozniacki bt Ayumi Morita 6-2, 6-1; Klara Zakopalova bt Marta Domachowska 6-3, 6-0; Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova bt Rika Fujiwara 6-2, 6-4; Aleksandra Wozniak bt Ryoko Fuda 6-1, 6-1; Samantha Stosur bt Anabel Medina Garrigues 6-1, 7-5.

At Metz: Open do Moselle: Second round: Carlos Moya bt Ivo Karlovic 6-3, 7-6(4); Janko Tipsarevic bt Ernests Gulbis 6-4, 6-4; Dmitry Tursunov bt Jose Acasuso 6-2, 6-2. First round: Michael Llodra bt Feliciano Lopez 7-6(11), 6-7(6), 6-3; Rik De Voest bt Arnaud Clement 4-6, 6-2, 7-5; Adrian Mannarino bt Andreas Seppi 6-4, 6-2; Radek Stepanek bt Julien Benneteau 6-3, 6-3.

At Stuttgart: Porsche Grand Prix: Second round: Victoria Azarenka bt Agnieszka Radwanska 6-1, 7-5; Li Na bt Serena Williams 0-6, 6-1, 6-4; Elena Dementieva bt Sybille Bammer 6-1, 6-4; Vera Zvonareva bt Marion Bartoli 6-2, 6-0; Nadia Petrova bt Patty Schnyder 6-4, 6-1; Dinara Safina bt Kateryna Bondarenko 6-1, 7-6(6).

First round: Vera Zvonareva bt Daniela Hantuchova 6-3, 6-2; Patty Schnyder bt Svetlana Kuznetsova 6-4, 4-6, 7-5. — Agencies

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