12 January 2005	Wednesday	01 Zilhaj 1425

SYDNEY, Jan 11: Carlos Moya and Anastasia Myskina both slumped out of the Sydney International on Tuesday, jolting their preparations for next week's Australian Open.

French Open champion Myskina suffered a shock second-round defeat by little-known Chinese qualifier Shuai Peng while Moya was sent packing by Czech Radek Stepanek. Shuai, ranked 80th in the world, raced to a 6-1 6-3 triumph as Myskina struggled to cope with the hot and windy conditions at the Olympic tennis centre.

Russia's first female grand slam winner committed a whopping 46 unforced errors to leave her short on match practice heading to Melbourne. "The conditions were tough but that's no excuse," she said. "I'm not confident but I have to look forward to the Australian Open.

It's one more week so I will have time for some practice." Moya had flown straight to Sydney after winning the Chennai Open on Sunday and donating his prize money to the tsunami relief fund.

The Spanish Davis Cup hero looked to have his first round encounter with Stepanek under control when he won six games on the trot to take the first set before falling 2-6 6-4 6-2.

"I had my chances but my legs felt heavy," Moya said. "I only got here last night and after a long trip it wasn't easy but I tried my best. "The good thing is that I can take a few days off and recover a little bit for Melbourne."

Russian sixth-seed Nikolay Davydenko lost to Czech Ivo Minar 6-2 3-6 6-2 and Ai Sugiyama, the women's eighth seed, was beaten by Tatiana Golovin of France 6-1 2-6 6-3.

Women's world number one Lindsay Davenport was untroubled in winning her second round clash with Frenchwoman Nathalie Dechy 6-3 6-4 in her first appearance of 2005.

Davenport pulled out of last week's Hopman Cup in Perth with a knee injury but said there had been no problems against Dechy. "Physically I don't feel any pain right now," Davenport said. "Overall I was ecstatic with the way I played. She's a tough player and I was able to close it up well."

Defending men's champion Lleyton Hewitt rebounded from his early exit at last week's Australian hardcourt championship in Adelaide to crush Slovak Karol Beck 6-1 6-2 in the first round.

Hewitt cruised to victory in 67 minutes to set up a meeting with Arnaud Clement after the Frenchman beat Czech Tomas Zib 6-1 6-3. "That was pretty good. I felt like I moved the ball around well," Hewitt said.

"I've done all the hard work leading into the Australian Open so now it's really just about keeping the confidence levels up."

Australian hardcourt champion Joachim Johansson of Sweden continued his fine form with a 6-4 6-3 win over big-serving Briton Greg Rusedski while Adelaide runner-up American Taylor Dent defeated Spaniard Santiago Ventura 7-5 7-6.

Results (first round):

Men: Radek Stepanek (Czech Republic) bt Carlos Moya (Spain) 2-6 6-4 6-2; Joachim Johansson (Sweden) bt Greg Rusedski (Britain) 6-4 6-3; Ivo Minar (Czech Republic) bt Nikolay Davydenko (Russia) 6-2 3-6 6-2; Lleyton Hewitt (Australia) bt Karol Beck (Slovakia) 6-1 6-2; Andrei Pavel (Romania) bt Luke Bourgeois (Australia) 7-6 (7-3) 7-5; Taylor Dent (U.S.) bt Santiago Ventura (Spain) 7-5 7-6 (9-7); Igor Andreev (Russia) bt Albert Costa (Spain) 6-1 6-4; Michael Llodra (France) bt Xavier Malisse (Belgium) 4-6 6-0 6-3; Arnaud Clement (France) bt Tomas Zib (Czech Republic) 6-1 6-3

Women: Samantha Stosur (Australia) bt Jelena Kostanic (Croatia) 6-3 6-3; Nadia Petrova (Russia) bt Ludmila Cervanova (Slovakia) 4-6 6-1 6-2; Alicia Molik (Australia) bt Francesca Schiavone (Italy) 7-6 (7-4) 6-1; Tatiana Golovin (France) bt Ai Sugiyama (Japan) 6-1 2-6 6-3; Daniela Hantuchova (Slovakia) bt Silvija Talaja (Croatia) 7-6 (7-2) 6-2

Women, second round Lindsay Davenport (U.S.) bt Nathalie Dechy (France) 6-3 6-4; Shuai Peng (China) bt Anastasia Myskina (Russia) 6-1 6-3

Auckland Open results

WELLINGTON:

Results of first round matches at the ATP Auckland Open on Tuesday:

Guillermo Coria (Argentina) bt Sjeng Schalken (Netherlands) 6-0 6-3; Raemon Sluiter (Netherlands) bt Tommy Robredo (Spain) 4-6 6-4 6-4; Dominik Hrbaty (Slovakia) bt Rafael Nadal (Spain) 6-3 retired; Juan Ignacio Chela (Argentina) bt Guillermo Garcia-Lopez (Spain) 6-2 6-2; Jan Hernych (Czech Republic) bt Juan Carlos Ferrero (Spain) 6-7 (1-7) 6-1 6-3; Olivier Rochus (Belgium) bt Luis Horna (Peru) 6-3 6-1; Federico Luzzi (Italy) bt Juan Monaco (Argentina) 6-4 6-4; Alberto Martin (Spain) bt Philipp Kohlschreiber (Germany) 6-4 7-5; Robby Ginepri (U.S.) bt Agustin Calleri (Argentina) 4-6 6-4 6-3; Ricardo Mello (Brazil) bt Jonas Bjorkman (Sweden) 6-4 6-1

Hobart results

SYDNEY: Results of second round matches at the WTA Hobart International on Tuesday:

Gisela Dulko (Argentina) bt Abigail Spears (U.S.) 2-6 6-3 6-2; Iveta Benesova (Czech Republic) bt Barbora Strycova (Czech Republic) 6-3 3-6 6-3; Jie Zheng (China) bt -Shinobu Asagoe (Japan) 6-2 6-3; Kveta Peschke (Czech Republic) bt Anabel Medina Garrigues (Spain) 6-0 6-2; Nicole Vaidisova (Czech Republic) bt Dinara Safina (Russia) 6-1 4-6 6-3; Klara Koukalova (Czech Republic) bt Marta Marrero (Spain) 6-1 7-5; Marta Domachowska (Poland) bt Maria Elena Camerin (Italy) 6-2 4-6 6-2; Na Li (China) bt Casey Dellacqua (Australia) 7-6 (7-1) 6-0.

CANBERRA RESULTS

CANBERRA: Results of singles matches at the WTA Canberra Classic on Tuesday (prefix number denotes seeding):

FIRST ROUND: Silvia Farina Elia (Italy) bt Tatiana Panova (Russia) 7-6 (7-0) 6-4; Aniko Kapros (Hungary) bt Meghann Shaughnessy (U.S.) 6-2 6-3; Anna Smashnova (Israel) bt Arantxa Parra-Santonja (Spain) 6-0 6-0; Marion Bartoli (France) bt Stephanie Foretz (France) 6-2 6-0; Yuliana Fedak (Ukraine) bt Nicole Pratt (Australia) 6-0 6-3; Evie Dominikovic (Australia) bt Maria Sanchez Lorenzo (Spain) 6-3 6-2

SECOND ROUND: Anca Barna (Germany) bt Claudine Schaul (Luxembourg) 6-1 3-2 Retired; Marlene Weingartner (Germany) bt Tathiana Garbin (Italy) 6-4 6-3. -Agencies