TOKYO, 7 October 2004 — Wimbledon champion Maria Sharapova had a long day along with 2002 Wimbledon finalists Lleyton Hewitt and David Nalbandian in their first matches at the Japan Open Tennis Tournament yesterday.
The 17-year-old Russian starlet Sharapova, women’s top seed here, had to recover from 0-2 down in the final set before fending off the challenge from Australian qualifier Samantha Stosur 6-4, 1-6, 6-3.
Men’s top seed Hewitt from Australia, who never lost a single set in the US Open before losing the final last month, surprisingly went the distance with Japan’s Goichi Motomura before winning 6-0, 3-6, 6-1 in 95 minutes.
Second seed Nalbandian from Argentina stormed back from two match points down in the second set to beat qualifier Wang Yeu-tzuoo of Taiwan 3-6, 7-6 (7-4), 6-2.
Earlier in the day, the 16-year-old French Open mixed doubles champion Tatiana Golovin of France bowed to Nicole Vaidisova of the Czech Republic, the youngest player here at 15 years five months.
“I just didn’t want to lose early,” said Sharapova, who captured her first WTA singles and doubles titles a year ago here.
“She (Stosur) was just playing some really great tennis in the second and at the beginning of the third. I played her in Korea and the surface is a lot slower so I was able to return a lot of her serves,” said Sharapova.
Hewitt meanwhile admitted he had a patchy performance against Motomura. “In the first set, I didn’t feel like I played great, but I got through 6-0,” said Hewitt.
“I had a lot of opportunities in the second set, nearly in every one of his service games. But once he got on the scoreboard, then he lifted his game quite a lot better.
“But I had one slack game at 4-3 in the second set to lose my serve. I was 40-15 up in that game, a couple of double faults, I just played a couple of slack points. Against anyone, you can’t afford to do that.
In the third round Hewitt will take on another Japanese, wild card entrant Takao Suzuki, who eliminated 15th seed Jan Hernych of the Czech Republic 7-6 (7-4), 3-6, 7-5.
Golovin committed her seventh and eighth double faults at 4-5 in the final set to give a triple match point, allowing Vaidisova to hit a backhand pass for a clean winner to win the battle of the teens.
Thai ace Tamarine Tanasugarn eliminated 2002 Japan champion Jill Craybas of the United States 6-3, 7-6 (7-2), while Germany’s Michael Kohlmann downed Kenneth Carlsen of Denmark, also the winner here in 2002, by 7-5, 6-2.
Raymond Knocks Russian Seed Dementieva Out Cold
In Filderstadt, Germany, Russia’s world No. 6 Elena Dementieva became the latest big name to exit the $650,000 WTA event here yesterday with the fifth seed falling to a 6-0, 7-5 first round defeat against America’s Lisa Raymond. Dementieva, 22, is the third seeded player to crash out at the first hurdle with compatriot Vera Zvonareva and Japan’s Ai Sugiyama previous victims.
The Russian came into Filderstadt in fine form after winning the recent WTA tournament in the Belgian city of Hasselt, stating her intention to drive away with the Porsche on offer for the winner here, even though she does not have a driving license.
But Dementieva was in neutral early on as the more experienced Raymond, 30, took the first set 6-0 in a little over half an hour with a tired Dementieva hitting the middle of the net on countless occasions. Raymond faced a third set with her opponent serving for the second set at 5-4 but the American, who won the mixed doubles title here last year, won three games on the spin to triumph 7-5 and move into the next round. Raymond’s compatriot and world No. 2 Lindsay Davenport makes her first appearance on court later on this evening in a second round match against Australia’s Alicia Molik.
