Hantuchova fights back for victory

Daniela Hantuchova battled from a set down to sink Melanie Oudin in the first round of the WTA LA Women’s Tennis Championships in Los Angeles yesterday.

The 26-year-old Slovakian secured her place in round two with a 6-7 (3/7) 6-2 6-2 triumph against the American qualifier.

Chinese duo Li Na and Zheng Jie, seeded 12th and 14th respectively. The former was 6-0 2-0 up against Ayumi Morita when the Japanese retired ill, while Zheng was a 7-5 1-6 6-2 victor against Ukrainian qualifier Olga Savchuk.

Thirteenth seed Samantha Stosur of Australia enjoyed a stress-free passage to round two with a 6-1 6-2 triumph over Romania’s Monica Niculescu.

Sabine Lisicki, the 17th seed from Germany, was made to work a little harder but eventually progressed – spoiling the comeback of 38-year-old Japanese qualifier Kimiko Date Krumm in the process – with a 7-6 (7/5) 2-6 7-5 win.

Elsewhere, there were straight-sets victories for Romania’s Sorana Cirstea, Canada’s Aleksandra Wozniak and Poland’s Urszula Radwanska.

Russian pair Ekaterina Makarova and Maria Kirilenko also advanced courtesy of three-set wins against Hungary’s Melinda Czink and South Africa’s Chanelle Scheepers respectively.

In the evening’s second-round matches, sixth seed Ana Ivanovic of Serbia outlasted American Vania King 6-4 4-6 6-1 and second seed Vera Zvonareva of Russia battled hard to defeat China’s Shuai Peng, 3-6 6-3 7-6 (8/6).