BEIJING, 20 September 2005 — Fifth seed Alica Molik worked in vain for nearly three hours before crashing out 7-6 (7 1), 6-7 (4 7), 6-4 last night to Mariana Diaz-Oliva in the first round of the $585,000 China Open.

The disappointed Australian, fighting to get back to full form after struggling to cure an inner ear infection which all but ended her career, will now concentrate on controlling her match error rate.

In three sets, Molik committed 35 — 20 of those in a first set to forget. She was unable to repeat the straight-sets first-round victory she took last week in Bali over the 61st-ranked Argentine.

Molik will aim to continue her slow return in Beijing with doubles. The small tournament boasts a big field, with Maria Sharapova on the top seeding and both Williams sisters playing. But the late injury pullout of Lindsay Davenport ensures Sharapova will keep the No. 1 ranking this week.

The Californian who has suffered with back problems off and on in recent months and skipped much of the pre-US Open summer due to fitness problems, lifted her 49th career title in Bali as she beat Italian Francesca Sciavone.

She stands one title away from becoming the ninth woman to win 50 career singles titles; she becomes only the third woman to win four titles in 2005, after Kim Clijsters (seven) and Justine Henin-Hardenne (four).

Her place in the draw was taken by German Anna-Lena Groenfeld.

In the day’s only other match, Ai Sugiyama defeated Japanese compatriot Akiko Morigami 7-6 (7 3), 6-4.

Today, three of the four Chinese in the field go into action. The Williams pair and Sharapova are not due to begin second round play until tomorrow. Venus and Sharapova were in Seoul for an exhibition match yesterday against each other.

Williams rallied from a 2-0 deficit in the second set to defeat the world No. 1 in the women’s game.

The decisive straight set 6-4, 6-4 victory at Seoul’s Olympic Gymnasium brought three-time Wimbledon champion Williams and the Russian teenager even at two matches apiece in head-to-head encounters.

A drop shot at the net gave Williams the fifth game of the second set before she broke Sharapova’s serve in game six after forcing her into a number of errors.

Crowd favorite Williams, who holds 33 WTA titles, brought her experience to bear over the 18-year old Russian, a 10-time winner who also lost to the American at the Wimbledon semifinals in July.

“My serve was really good, you know, I mixed it up, big serve, spin serve, tricky serve,” Williams said. “The surface was very fast, so it was more like who could hit the best shot first.”

“I don’t think I served that well,” Sharapova said when asked about playing on the hard indoor surface.

After the match, Williams and Sharapova donated their respective prize money of $20,000 and $10,000 to a South Korean charity that helps orphans, the elderly and the disabled.

The two fly to Beijing today for the China Open.

Sharapova won’t be returning to Seoul later this month for the Korea Open to defend her title because new WTA rules prohibit the world’s top six players from entering lower tier events to avoid potential scheduling clashes.

Castellvi, Uberoi Advance

in Sunfeast Open

In Calcutta, India, Puerto Rico’s Villmari Castellvi caused a mild flutter by defeating the higher-ranked Emmanuelle Gagliardi of Switzerland 6-4, 6-4, yesterday in the opening round of the WTA Tour’s US$170,000 Sunfeast Open tennis tournament.

Castellvi, ranked 173, prevailed over the 100th-placed Gagliardi in a contest that featured 10 breaks in two sets.

“I played an aggressive game not worrying about the fact that my opponent was ranked 73 places above me,” Castellvi said.

“But I need to lift my game further to regularly produce good results,” she said.

India’s Shikha Uberoi sailed into the second round with a 6-1, 6-3 victory against Ryoko Fuda of Japan.

The third-seeded doubles pair of Australia’s Nicole Pratt and Thailand’s Tamarine Tanasugarn crashed out in the opening round, outplayed 6-3, 6-2 by Chuang Chia-Jung of Taiwan and Rika Fujiwara of Japan.