Pan Pacific & Thailand Open: Caroline Wozniacki and Olivier Rochus advance
Danish tennis player Caroline Wozniacki advanced into the third round of the Toray Pan Pacific Open with a two set win over Greta Arn on Tuesday.
The top seed, who had retired from this event in 2009 as a result of illness, hammered her Hungarian tennis foe with a comfortable 6-1 and 6-3 defeat.
"It is nice for me to get through this one. It is a really fast court and you need to just be focused all the way,” expressed Caroline after the match.
In other action, Kimiko Date Krumm from Japan celebrated her 40th birthday after brushing aside Daniela Hantuchova to make her way into the next round of the Tokyo tennis competition.
The former fourth ranked tennis ace, who had shocked last year’s winner Maria Sharapova in the opening round, excited the home crowd with a 2-6, 6-0 and 4-0 match after which her Slovakian tennis foe withdrew as a result of an injury.
Kimiko was extremely happy with Monday’s win and said that some luck rubbed off on her perhaps because of her birthday.
Elsewhere, the United States Open runner up Vera Zvonareva from Russia surpassed Italian tennis foe Sara Errani in two sets with a 6-3, 6-3 win. Fifth seed Francesca Schiavone also got the better of Alexandra Dulgheru from Romania in a two setter clash, recording a 7-5, 6-3 win.
Vera said, "I always believe if I play my best tennis I can beat anyone. I cannot wait for what is next."
It was also a good day for the German tennis player, Andrea Petkovic who claimed a 6-3, 7-5 win over the 2009 French Open winner Svetlana Kuznetsova from Russia. On the same day, Julia Goerges also managed to breakdown Australia's Samantha Stosur on Tuesday.
Former Wimbledon runners up Marion Bartoli, the eleventh seed from France, toppled her Serbian tennis foe Ana Ivanovic in two sets with a 6-2, 6-1 drubbing.
Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova from Russia will now meet Caroline Wozniacki as a result of her victory over Kateryna Bondarenko on Tuesday.
Seventh seed Elena Dementieva from Russia and eighth seed Victoria Azarenka from Belarus also secured comfortable wins over Yaroslava Shvedova and Lucie Safarova respectively.
In other action, Juan Martin del Potro in his comeback clash, was defeated by Olivier Rochus in two sets at the Thailand Open on Tuesday. The final match score was 7-6 (7), 6-4.
The 2009 United States Open winner has not played competitive tennis since the Australian Open in January. The Argentine pulled out of several events before undergoing surgery on his wrist back in May.
“I played a good match. I had my chances in the first-set tiebreak and he played some great points. I’m just happy to be back on the circuit, and I hope I get better and better,” said Del Potro after his loss on Tuesday.
Top seed Rafael Nadal from Spain will now play his opening clash since grabbing the United States Open and completing his career Grand Slam against Ruben Bemelmans on Thursday.
Ruben triumphed in the first ATP clash of his professional life on Tuesday when he thrashed Fredrikson Nielsen from Denmark.
Olivier, who is a foot shorter than the 6-foot-6-inch del Potro, was strong from the baseline and used a powerful counter-attacking game versus an erratic foe to win the battle.
In other opening round clashes on Tuesday, eight seed Michael Berrer was bundled out by Guillermo Garcia-Lopez with a 6-4, 7-6 (4) victory. Meanwhile, Mikhail Kukushkin defeated American opponent, Ryler DeHeart in a three setter clash with a final match score of 6-3, 6-7 (4), 6-4.
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