28 April 2005	Thursday	18 Rabi-ul-Awwal 1426

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WARSAW, April 27: Kim Clijsters extended her winning streak to 16 matches when she defeated Russia’s Maria Kirilenko 6-2 6-1 to reach the quarterfinals of the WTA tournament on Wednesday. The seventh-seeded Belgian looked far more comfortable than she had in her opening round struggle with her strength of shot often forcing her 18-year old opponent into errors.

Kirilenko held serve just once in the first set, and even then faced a break point, and she held only once in the second as Clijsters dominated.

Clijsters, playing her fourth tournament of the year after claiming victory at Indian Wells and Miami, dropped her serve after breaking to lead 2-0, but was never troubled by a promising but lightweight opponent.

After taking the first set, Clijsters began the second in style, claiming the first three games for the loss of just one point.

Looking increasingly at ease, Clijsters fired a fierce return to break again for a 5-1 lead, before closing out the one-sided contest with an ace.

Eighth-seeded Italian Silvia Farina Elia also eased into the quarter-finals, losing the first game of the first set and the first two games of the second, but beating Czech qualifier Zuzana Ondraskova 6-1 6-2.

Results (second round): Kim Clijsters (Belgium) bt Maria Kirilenko (Russia) 6-2 6-1; Elena Bovina (Russia) bt Daniela Hantuchova (Slovakia) 6-4 4-6 6-3; Silvia Farina Elia (Italy) bt Zuzana Ondraskova (Czech Republic) 6-1 6-2

Costa dumps Massu

ESTORIL: Former French Open champion Albert Costa rolled back the years as he dumped fifth seed Nicolas Massu out of the Estoril Open on Wednesday.

Costa was trailing 3-6 3-2 when bad light stopped their first round match on Tuesday but he was transformed when play resumed on Wednesday as he ran out a 3-6 6-3 6-3 winner.

Another seed to fall was Swede Joachim Johansson, the number three being bundled out by Guillermo Garcia-Lopez 6-2 6-4 in the second round.

The 51st ranked Costa admitted that he was heading out of the tournament before bad light intervened on Tuesday.

“Yesterday he was playing better than me and it helped a lot to stop,” he said. “In the break I could rest and start to think and change things that I needed to do properly.

“Yesterday I was finding the wind difficult, especially on my first serve.”

The tall Johansson, who has struggled recently after winning two tournaments earlier in the year, faltered at 4-4 in the second set, gifting his opponent a break with two double faults and wild forehand after leading 40-0.

Lucky loser Juan Antonio Marin of Costa Rica continued his impressive progress, reaching the quarter-finals after opponent Agustin Calleri retired with a back injury while trailing 6-4 3-1.

In the women’s draw, second seed Dinara Safina celebrated her 19th birthday in style, winning a delayed first round match against Claudine Schaul 6-2 6-1.

Third seed Gisele Dulko of Argentina beat Alyona Bondarenko 6-2 6-3 to reach the quarterfinals where she was joined by fourth seed Li Na of China who beat Nicole Pratt 7-5 6-1.

Results (first round)

Men

Albert Costa (ESP) bt Nicolas Massu (CHI ) 3-6 (6/3), 6-3

Second round: Guillermo Garcia-Lopez (ESP) bt Joachim Johansson (SWE) 6-2, 6-4; Juan Marin (CRC) bt Agustin Calleri (ARG) 6-4, 3-1 retired

Women

Dinara Safina (RUS) bt Claudine Schaul (LUX) 6-2, 6-1; Gisela Dulko (ARG ) bt Alyona Bondarenko (UKR) 6-2, 6-3;Na Li (CHN ) bt Nicole Pratt (AUS) 7-5, 6-1; Dally Randriantefy (MAD ) bt Maria Sanchez Lorenzo (ESP) 4-6, 6-0, 6-2; Jie Zheng (CHN) bt Martina Muller (GER) 6-3, 6-4

Lee sets up duel with Haas MUNICH (Germany): South Korea’s Hyung-Taik Lee became the second Asian player to reach the last sixteen of the 323,250 euro (419,754 dollar) BMW Open defeating Frenchman Jean Rene Lisnard 6-4, 3-6, 6-3 on Wednesday.

Thailand’s Paradorn Srichaphan, seeded seven, reached the second round with a 6-3, 6-4 straight sets win over Dutchman Peter Wessels on Tuesday.

Paradorn pits his wits against Argentina’s Juan Monaco in the next round while Lee has a tougher task against fourth seed and local German favourite Tommy Haas.

“Lee is not a sand court specialist and that makes him unpredictable,” said Haas. “But I still think I have a good chance of progressing.”

Haas is Germany’s only representative left in the competition with Florian Mayer, Alexander Waske, Tobias Summerer and Lars Burgsmuller joining eighth seed Rainer Schuettler on the first round casualty list.

The persistent rain forced play to be cut short on Wednesday and Russia’s reigning champion Nikolay Davydenko will play his second round match against Dutchman Raemon Sluiter on Thursday.

Romanian fifth seed Andrei Pavel’s match with Sjeng Schalken has also been postponed until Thursday.

Results (men’s singles): Peter Luczak (Australia) bt Florian Mayer (Germany) 2-6 6-3 6-2; Jarkko Nieminen (Finland) bt Bohdan Ulihrach (Czech Republic) 7-5 6-1; Michal Mertinak (Slovakia) bt Julien Benneteau (France) 6-4 6-1; Hyung-Taik Lee (South Korea) bt Jean-Rene Lisnard (France) 6-4 3-6 6-3.—Agencies