07 October 2004	Thursday	21 Shaban 1425

Tokyo, Oct 6: 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 on Wednesday.

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.

Hewitt meanwhile admitted he had a patchy performance against Motomura. 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.

Results

Men

FIRST ROUND: Marco Chiudinelli (Switzerland) bt Alexander Peya (Austria) 4-6 6-3 6-4; Flavio Saretta (Brazil) bt Jan Vacek (Czech Republic) 6-3 6-4; Guillermo Garcia-Lopez (Spain) bt Lars Burgsmuller (Germany) 6-4 2-6 6-3; Michael Kohlmann (Germany) bt Kenneth Carlsen (Denmark) 7-5 6-2; Bohdan Ulihrach (Czech Republic) bt Noam Okun (Israel) 6-4 6-1; Bjorn Phau (Germany) bt Tasuku Iwami (Japan) 6-4 6-1; Takahiro Terachi (Japan) bt Satoshi Iwabuchi (Japan) 6-1 6-3

SECOND ROUND: Lleyton Hewitt (Australia) bt Goichi Motomura (Japan) 6-0 3-6 6-1; David Nalbandian (Argentina) bt Wang Yeu-tzuoo (Taiwan) 3-6 7-6 (7-4) 6-2; Taylor Dent (U.S.) bt Tomas Zib (Czech Republic) 6-3 6-4; Thomas Johansson (Sweden) bt Justin Gimelstob (U.S.) 6-4 6-4; Cyril Saulnier (France) bt Nicolas Thomann (France) 2-6 6-1 6-4; Lee Hyung-Taik (South Korea) bt Wayne Arthurs (Australia) 6-2 7-6 (7-2); Takao Suzuki (Japan) bt Jan Hernych (Czech Republic) 7-6 (7-4) 3-6 7-5; Gilles Muller (Luxembourg) bt Alex Bogomolov Jr. (U.S.) 6-3 6-1

WOMEN

SECOND ROUND: Maria Sharapova (Russia) bt Samantha Stosur (Australia) 6-4 1-6 6-3; Klara Koukalova (Czech Republic) bt Lubomira Kurhajcova (Slovakia) 6-2 6-4; Evgenia Linetskaya (Russia) bt Rika Fujiwara (Japan) 6-4 7-5; Mashona Washington (U.S.) bt Kristina Brandi (Puerto Rico) 6-2 6-2; Tamarine Tanasugarn (Thailand) bt Jill Craybas (U.S.) 6-3 7-6 (7-2); Aniko Kapros (Hungary) bt Sesil Karatantcheva (Bulgaria) 6-4 6-0; Nicole Vaidisova (Czech Republic) bt Tatiana Golovin (France) 6-4 3-6 6-4; Youlia Fedossova (France) bt Akiko Morigami (Japan) 6-3 7-6 (9-7). -Agencies