The Hindu : Sport / Tennis : Serena comes back with a bang

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Thursday, Jul 20, 2006

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Serena comes back with a bang

CINCINNATI: Serena Williams won her first competitive match in six months, beating Anastasia Myskina 6-2, 6-2 in the first round of the Cincinnati Open here on Tuesday.

The trademark forehands were back again as the ninth-seeded Sania Mirza sailed into the second round with a 6-1, 2-0 victory over former Wimbledon semifinalist Alexandra Stevenson. The latter retired in the second set due to a right shoulder strain.

Sania now plays Emma Laine of Finland who beat Austrian Sybille Bammer 6-3, 6-1 in the first round.

In control

Stevenson is recovering from a major shoulder surgery in 2004 and the American, ranked 454, clearly struggled against the Indian. Sania showed signs of coming back to form in what has been a lacklustre year for her so far. She dropped just one game in the first set and played her aggressive brand of tennis that left Stevenson clueless.

In the second set too, the Indian broke her rival and held serve before Stevenson threw in the towel and retired after two games.

Meanwhile, Serena, who has been bothered by a chronic left knee injury, chose the Tier III event for her first match since losing in the third round of the Australian Open.

``I felt really relaxed,'' she said. ``I haven't felt this way in a long time. I almost could have played Wimbledon, as I was about 60 or 70 per cent then. But I probably would have had an embarrassing loss.''

Serena said she was mentally refreshed, but feeling a bit rusty. ``I could have returned better. I made a few simple errors I shouldn't have made,'' she said.

While Serena was on hiatus, Myskina — the 2004 French Open champion — had played regularly and well, going 14-4 in her previous 18 matches, including four wins at Wimbledon. But she was no match for Serena, whose only tentative move was her first serve, clocked at 97-mph. She soon cranked it up to the 120-plus mph range.

``I was surprised myself, because I wasn't serving that well in practice,'' she said.

Clean slate

Serena had beaten Myskina in all their previous four encounters. The Russian, ranked 11th in the world, was the tournament's No. 2 seed behind defending champion Patty Schnyder.

Serena won the first two games, then rallied with four straight points to win the third game by simply overpowering Myskina. The Russian held her next serve and had a good chance in the following game, when Serena double-faulted and then missed an overhead. However, another ace made it 4-1.

``She hadn't played in six months, so I didn't know what to expect,'' Myskina said. ``Her serve was pretty good. I knew I was going to have to keep winning my serve if I was going to stay in the game.''

Serena broke Myskina again in the eighth game to take the set and Myskina smashed a ball in disgust.

Serena struggled at times in the second set, but the outcome was never in doubt. The American, who was ranked No. 1 in the world for 57 weeks in 2002 and 2003, began the tournament ranked No. 139 because of her injury lay-off.

``It's devastating,'' she said of the humble ranking. ``But I have no pressure on me. I have nowhere to go but up.''

Fifth-seeded Jelena Jankovic made it to the second round with a 6-3, 6-2 victory over Ukrainian Olga Savchuk.

Jankovic, a Serbian who knocked out Venus Williams in the fourth round at Wimbledon, is 15-6 since snapping a 10-match losing streak that started in the second round of the Australian Open in January.

Enjoying it again

She went on the losing streak as she tried to get over a virus that bothered her for two months late last year. ``I was in bad form,'' Jankovic said. ``That was one of the worst periods of my life. I didn't enjoy tennis much, like I used to, but I like it now.''

Fourth-seeded Katarina Srebotnik beat Paraguayan qualifier Rossana de los Rios 6-3, 7-6(3), while the sixth seed Marion Bartoli got past Taiwanese qualifier Chan Chin-wei 6-2, 6-3.

Gisela Dulko, the eighth seed, defeated Poland's Marta Domachowska 7-5, 6-3, China's Yuan Meng beat Argentina's Mariana Diaz-Oliva 6-3, 7-5 and Italy's Maria Elena Camerin cruised past American qualifier Carly Gullickson 6-1, 6-1.

In an all-American clash, Abigail Spears overcame the challenge of Alexa Glatch 6-3, 5-7, 6-4 and Uzbekistan's Varvara Lepchenko too struggled to beat South African Natalie Grandin 4-6, 6-1, 6-3.

The results:

At Cincinnati (WTA Cincinnati Open): First round: Sania Mirza bt Alexandra Stevenson 6-1, 2-0, retd.; Serena Williams bt Anastasia Myskina 6-2, 6-2; Jelena Jankovic bt Olga Savchuk 6-3, 6-2; Maria Elena Camerin bt Carly Gullickson 6-1, 6-1; Katarina Srebotnik bt Rossana de los Rios 6-3, 7-6(3); Marion Bartoli bt Chan Chin-wei 6-2, 6-3; Abigail Spears bt Alexa Glatch 6-3, 5-7, 6-4; Yuan Meng bt Mariana Diaz-Oliva 6-3, 7-5; Gisela Dulko bt Marta Domachowska 7-5, 6-3; Varvara Lepchenko bt Nathalie Grandin 4-6, 6-1, 6-3; Vasilisa Bardina bt Hana Sromova 6-7(3), 6-4, 6-2; Bethanie Mattek bt Shenay Perry 3-6, 6-1, 6-2.

At Indianapolis (ATP RCA Championships): Second round: Andy Roddick bt Ramon Delgado 6-3, 6-2; Fernando Gonzalez bt Sam Querrey 6-3, 6-4; Paul Goldstein bt Razvan Sabau 6-2, 6-1; Robby Ginepri bt Alejandro Falla 4-6, 7-5, 7-5; Vince Spadea bt Ricardo Mello 6-3, 6-1; Jeff Morrison bt Kevin Kim 6-2, 6-2; First round: Lars Burgsmuller bt Zack Fleishman 6-2, 6-3; George Bastl bt Nathan Healey 6-3, 6-0; Benjamin Becker bt Ivan Navarro Pastor 6-2, 4-6, 7-5; Lee Hyung-taik bt Mark Philippoussis 6-4, 7-6(3); Wayne Arthurs bt Harel Levy 6-3, 7-5; Kenneth Carlssen bt Andrea Stoppini 7-6(5), 6-4; Wesley Whitehouse bt Justin Gimelstob 6-3, 7-5; Thiago Alves bt Bobby Reynolds 6-4, 6-4.

At Stuttgart (ATP Mercedes Cup): Second round: Diego Hartfield bt Nicolas Almagro 6-7(2), 7-6(1), 7-5; Diego Junqueira bt Filippo Volandri 6-3, 6-4; Nicolas Lapentti bt Florent Serra 5-7, 7-6(3), 6-2; Tomas Berdych bt Hugo Armando 7-5, 6-3. Luis Horna bt Albert Portas7-6(4), 6-2; Juan Martin Del Potro bt Juan Ignacio Chela 6-2, 4-6, 6-1; Juan Monaco bt Kristof Vliegen 6-3, 1-0 ret.; Mariano Zabaleta bt Gaston Gaudio 6-4, 6-0; Jurgen Melzer bt Max Mirnyi 6-3 6-1. First round: Oliver Marach bt Torsten Popp 6-1, 6-2; Mariano Zabaleta bt Alexander Waske 6-3, 3-6, 6-3; Simon Greul bt Rainer Schuettler 7-5, 7-5; Jurgen Melzer w.o. Philipp Kohlschreiber; Jiri Novak bt Simone Bolelli 7-6(4), 6-1.

At Amersfoot (ATP Priority Telecom Open): Second round: Ruben Ramirez Hidalgo bt Paul-Henri Mathieu 6-4, 6-2; Alberto Martin bt Edgardo Massa 6-2, 6-4. First round: Guillermo Coria bt Robin Haase 6-3, 4-6, 6-4; Carlos Moya bt Guillermo Garcia-Lopez 6-4, 7-6(6); Alberto Martin bt Albert Montanes 6-2, 6-2; Marc Gicquel bt Fernando Vicente 6-2, 6-4; Agustin Calleri bt Denis Gremelmayr 6-2, 7-6(5); Fabio Fognini bt Juan-Pablo Guzman 6-3, 1-6, 7-5; Nicolas Massu bt Andreas Vinciguerra 7-6(3), 6-3; Thiemo de Bakker bt Julien Benneteau 6-3, 6-3.

At Palermo (WTA Palermo International): First round: Aravane Rezai bt Ekaterina Bychkova 6-4, 6-2; Anastasiya Yakimova bt Timea Bacsinszky 6-1, 6-3; Lucie Safarova bt Ivana Abramovic 6-3, retd.; Lourdes Dominguez Lino bt Maria Sanchez Lorenzo 6-3, 1-0, retd.; Karin Knapp bt Nathalie Vierin 7-6(2), 6-7(4), 6-1; Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez bt Martina Muller 6-4, 6-4; Eleni Daniilidou bt Maret Ani 0-6, 6-4, 6-4. — Agencies

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