• E-mail
• Print
• Comment
• Font Size
• Digg
• del.icio.us
• Discuss article

Kuznetsova breezes into second round at Kremlin Cup

Posted on: Tuesday, 11 October 2005, 10:58 CDT

By Gennady Fyodorov

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Eighth seed Svetlana Kuznetsova breezed into the second round of the Kremlin Cup with a 6-0 6-4 win over Swiss qualifier Emmanuelle Gagliardi on Tuesday.

Seventh seed Alicia Molik became the first seed to lose at the $2.3 million tournament, going down to fellow Australian Samantha Stosur 6-3 6-2 in just over an hour.

Molik, who missed several months this year after suffering from a virus that upset her balance, had trouble finding her range as she committed 33 unforced errors in a 63-minute match.

Russia's Dinara Safina and up-and-coming Bulgarian Sesil Karatancheva had no such problems, winning their first-round matches in straight sets.

Safina, the younger sister of Australian Open champion Marat Safin, beat experienced Italian Silvia Farina Elia 6-1 7-5 while 16-year-old Karatantcheva dismissed Serbia's Jelena Jankovic 6-2 6-1 in just 46 minutes.

Safina will now face unseeded Stosur and Karatantcheva takes on fourth-seeded Elena Dementieva, who received a bye in the opening round.

German Anna-Lena Groenefeld won a three-set battle against France's Virginie Razzano 3-6 7-5 6-1 to set up a second-round clash with world number one and top seed Maria Sharapova on Wednesday.

Italian Flavia Pennetta upset 14th-ranked Nathalie Dechy 6-3 7-5 and will now meet another Frenchwoman, third seed Mary Pierce.

Despite a little hiccup early in the second set, the muscular Kuznetsova had too much power for a slender Gagliardi, ranked a lowly 107, as she wrapped up the match in 74 minutes.

"I had a bit of problem when she broke for 3-1 in the second set but other than that I was always in control," the Russian told reporters.

"I think I caused most of the problems myself by making too many mistakes but I was able to overcome them and finished the match strong."

The St Petersburg native surprised most tennis experts a year ago when she became the first Russian woman to win the U.S. Open, but she has since struggled to regain her form.

"I didn't have a good year but hopefully all my problems are in the past and I'm looking forward to having a much better season next year," she said.

On the men's side, Italian eighth seed Filippo Volandri, the only seeded player in action on day two at the Olympic sports complex, crushed Razvan Sabau of Romania 6-0 6-1 in 38 minutes.

Source: REUTERS

More News in this Category