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| January 10, 2007 | Wednesday | Zilhaj 19, 1427 |
Mauresmo battles into Sydney quarter-finals
SYDNEY, Jan 9: World No.3 Amelie Mauresmo battled through an all-French dogfight with Tatiana Golovin to reach the Sydney International quarter-finals here Tuesday.
The top seed was under pressure deep in the second set before pulling away to win 6-7 (4/7), 7-5, 6-1 in the second round match.
It was a good two-and-a-half-hour hit-out for Mauresmo before she opens the defence of her Australian Open title in Melbourne next week.
The Sydney match was a carbon copy of Mauresmo's three-set win over 18-year-old Golovin, the world No.22, in the semi-finals of the Paris Indoors last February, when she also lost an opening tiebreak set.
Mauresmo is coming off her career-best season with Grand Slam titles in Melbourne and Wimbledon, four other titles and the No.1 ranking for most of the year.
Golovin broke five times, but when an upset looked likely a combination of the top seed's superior play under pressure and increasing errors allowed Mauresmo to finish strongly in a 28-minute final set.
“She gave me a lot of trouble and had some opportunities maybe to win the match, although I think we both didn't play our best level,” Mauresmo said.
“I'm still looking for some rhythm, looking for some quickness around the court and also tactically a few things here and there to adapt, to adjust.
“But it's the kind of match that is good for you. You can only get better, and it's good for the confidence.”Mauresmo now faces a testing quarter-final against on-form Serbian Jelena Jankovic, who followed up her victory over five-time Grand Slam champion Martina Hingis with a straight sets win against Australian Samantha Stosur.
“She had a great end of the season last year and seems to be playing well.
I'm expecting a tough one,” Mauresmo said of Jankovic.
Jankovic, who prepared for the Australian circuit by training in the humidity of Colombia, has now won seven matches straight following last weekend's win in New Zealand.
“I was in Colombia in the hot weather. I felt like I was training in a sauna ... actually if I can train in these kind of conditions, when I come here it's easy for me,” said Jankovic, who was a semi-finalist at last year's US Open.
Israeli Shahar Peer upset Swiss seventh seed Patty Schnyder 7-6 (7/3), 6-1 and will face the challenge of third seed Kim Clijsters, who brushed aside Australian Nicole Pratt, 6-1, 6-2.
“She's very good on the run, she can play kind of out wide and on the corner,” Clijsters said of Pratt.
“She hits some good shots, and that's just something where I tried to build up my points very well and be patient, and even in the cross-court rally just try to keep the unforced errors down.”Russian Elena Dementieva, the 2005 US Open semi-finalist, had two match points and served for the match twice only to go down to China's Li Na, 3-6, 6-1, 7-5.
Li will face Slovenia's Katarina Srebotnik in the quarters after former US Open champion and Russian second seed Svetlana Kuznetsova retired suffering from an upper respiratory tract infection after trailing 6-2 in the first set or in the quarters.
Czech eighth seed Nicole Vaidisova trounced Ukraine's Yuliana Fedak 6-3, 6-1 and will next face Serbia's Ana Ivanovic, who advanced after fourth-seeded Russian Nadia Petrova withdrew with an abdominal strain while leading 6-2, 4-2.
Women's second-round results on Tuesday:
Ana Ivanovic (Serbia) beat 4-Nadia Petrova (Russia) 6-2 4-2
(Petrova retired); Katarina Srebotnik (Slovenia) beat 2-Svetlana Kuznetsova (Russia) 6-2 0-0 (Kuznetsova retired); Na Li (China) beat 6-Elena Dementieva (Russia) 3-6 6-1 7-5; 3-Kim Clijsters (Belgium) beat Nicole Pratt (Australia) 6-1
6-2; 1-Amelie Mauresmo (France) beat Tatiana Golovin (France)
6-7(4) 7-5 6-1; 8-Nicole Vaidisova (Czech Republic) beat Yuliana Fedak
(Ukraine) 6-3 6-1; Shahar Peer (Israel) beat 7-Patty Schnyder (Switzerland) 7-6(3) 6-2; Jelena Jankovic (Serbia) beat Samantha Stosur (Australia) 6-2 7-6(2).—Agencies
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