French Open - Women: Sharapova screams back

Eurosport - Tue, 26 May 07:52:00 2009

Russian Maria Sharapova shrilled her way into the second round of the French Open with a 3-6 6-1 6-2 victory over Anastasiya Yakimova of Belarus.

Maria Sharapova of Russia plays a shot during her match against Anastasiya Yakimova of Belarus at the French Open REUTERS - 0

The former world number one, who dropped to 102nd in the world rankings being out of action for nine months because of a shoulder injury, needed a set to find her range on Court One before cracking winners past the world number 64.

Yakimova called on the tournament's trainer at change of sides at 4-1 in the second set to have her lower back massaged and she never seemed to recover.

Sharapova, who returned to singles play last week at the Warsaw Open where she reached the last eight, will next face 11th-seeded compatriot Nadia Petrova.

Venus Williams kept a cool head in scorching conditions to reach the second round with a 6-1 4-6 6-2 win over fellow American Bethanie Mattek-Sands.

The third seed appeared to be in a hurry to get back into the cooler confines of the locker room when she romped through the first set in just 34 minutes.

But Mattek-Sands delayed Williams on court for almost two hours before the 28-year-old sealed victory with a thumping forehand winner.

Williams, who owns seven grand slam trophies but has never triumphed at Roland Garros, will next face Lucie Safarova of the Czech Republic, who downed Germany's Sabine Lisicki 6-1 2-6 6-1.

China's Zheng Jie, the 15th seed and Thai veteran Tamarine Tanasugarn kept Asian interest alive with wins over Frenchwomen Stephanie Cohen-Aloro and Camille Pin respectively, but Japanese 33-year-old Ai Sugiyama, playing in her 15th Roland Garros, went out 6-3 6-2 to France's Aravane Rezai.

Spain's 22nd seed Carla Suarez Navarro, a quarter-finalist at Roland Garros last year on her Grand Slam debut, wasted no time to book her place in the second round with a 6-1 6-4 win over Edina Gallovits. She will next play Czech Lucie Hredecka, who progressed with a 6-1 6-2 win over Austrian qualifier Yvonne Meusburger.

Hungary's 29th seed Agnes Szavay cruised past Italian qualifier Corinna Dentoni 6-3 6-4 but Russian 23rd seed Alisa Kleybanova crashed out of the tournament despite a second set fightback, eventually losing 6-2 4-6 6-1 to Slovenian qualifier Polona Hercog.

French 13th seed Marion Bartoli had to come from a set down to beat compatriot Pauline Parmentier, thudding down a huge serve on match point to wrap up a 3-6 6-1 6-3 win.

Poland's number 12 seed Agnieszka Radwanska had an easier time of things as she enjoyed a 6-3 6-1 win over Rossana De Los Rios.

A couple of seeds did drop late in the day though; last year's quarter-finalist and 17th seed Patty Schnyder lost 6-4 6-3 to Kateryna Bondarenko and Russia's 26th seeded Anna Chakvetadze was beaten by 3-6 6-4 6-4 by world number 124 Mariana Duque Marino of Colombia.

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Reuters

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  1. "ellinopoulaki" Serena is miles below GOAT­ status, Margaret Court won 24 singles slams, Graf won­ 22, Navratilova 18... Serena has a looong way to go­ (and she's basically a power monster with no­ finesse)

    From Chemical Ali, on Mon 25 May 10:05PM

  2. These headline writers have a great job. What will be­ the next filth they masquerade as a headline?­ "Sharapova dominates Yakimova into grunting­ submission"!?!!? Utter filth!

    From Anon, on Mon 25 May 10:04PM

  3. mpa mpa... Den uparhei logos gia zhlia. H serena einai­ H PAIKTRIA , an den theleis na to anagnwriseis auto,­ diko sou problhma :D.

    From Kyriakos M, on Mon 25 May 10:01PM

  4. Siga re file, I sygkekrimeni eprepe stous antres na­ agonizetai, oxi stis gynaikes...

    From sakis543, on Mon 25 May 9:52PM

  5. See, some of you have got it all wrong. Serena is the­ greatest player of her generation, if not the greatest­ of all times. What she lacks in consistency she makes­ up for in brute strength and will power. If she can get­ her act together, she will definitely win her 11th Gram­ Slam title, but mark my words, that's a big IF. If­ not, the game is pretty much open and the championship­ up for graps.

    From Kyriakos M, on Mon 25 May 9:29PM

  6. oh my, Venus has a tough match ahead! Safarova is­ unpredictably dangerous. Good thing Mauresmo is out­ from the draw, not to mention Zvonareva's­ withdrawal...go Williams!

    From sophie180585, on Mon 25 May 8:33PM

  7. Maria is a great chamion, but just NOT a French Open­ Champion...
    She got destroyed by Ana in the 2007­ semi-finals, and in my opinion just won't win the­ French Open, or even make the quarter finals.

    From ~JYP, on Mon 25 May 8:30PM

  8. I think Sharapova is to face Shvedova from Kazakhstan,­ not Petrova in the next round, there's a mistake­ either in the draw or in this article, EUROSPORT,­ please, corrections needed!
    And one of the reasons i­ want safina to win is to make serena embarassed or even­ appologize, i am sure serena is going to take a word if­ safina wins, would be fun to watch that, jeje. By the­ way i agree that pressures of Ana Ivanovic, but there­ are no pressure on sharapova either, her loss to­ bondarenko was obviously an architectured one, just to­ get more rest before today's match. Serena won her­ 2007 australian being 83 why not sharapova being 102,­ let's see... and for people comparing ana and­ maria, well i am maria's supporter, but her titles­ and rankings speak for themselves, she is a way higher­ ranked from the perspective of tennis history and­ anything else related to tennis than ana, you cannot­ simply write her off, she is a great champion, and­ third best by all tennis regalias among the on tour­ players

    From KanatA, on Mon 25 May 8:09PM

  9. 'Rob', I disagree with you.
    Sharapova won't­ get to the quarters if she happens to face Li Na, and­ she may not even get to the 3rd round, seeing she lost­ to Alona Bondarenko in Warsaw last week, and now she­ has world number 11 Nadia Petrova.
    I think everyone is­ jumping for Safina too quickly, seeing we havn't­ even started the second round matches. Ivanovic­ isn't one to overlook, I know everyone is doubting­ her, but that's good, because no one expects­ anything from her, meaning the pressure is off her, and­ she can go out and play her game.
    She has a...,­ let's say easy draw until Azarenka or Suarez­ Navarro in round 4, but that's if the pair of them­ are consistent and win through.

    GO ANA!

    From ~JYP, on Mon 25 May 7:31PM

  10. Well, you all missed the reality of Safina taking it.­ She is in excellent form and enjoyed her practice match­ today for sure - oh - was that actually an English girl­ trying to supply some shots? Safina will get the big­ cup, Maria will get to the quarter finals which will do­ her ranking some good, even better if she arrives at­ the semi's

    From Rob, on Mon 25 May 7:12PM

  11. Go Maria go go go go We love you !!!!!
    you are the real­ number one !!

    From Andreas, on Mon 25 May 6:51PM

  12. Come on Maria should be a good second round with you­ playing Nadia good luck to you both.

    From AJ, on Mon 25 May 6:43PM

  13. Indeed so, one of my favourites Li Na but she­ doesn't have a good grand slam record (no coaching­ allowed) and Jie Zheng is the one that tends to do very­ well.

    From sanchez.santos, on Mon 25 May 6:03PM

  14. Petrova most likely has Sharapova next, seeing that­ Sharapova is leading in the final set of her match­ versus Yakimova.
    Well I have to agree with you now.
    I­ can only see Venus or Li Na coming out of that quarter,­ and if Li Na plays at her best, and Venus continues to­ be very unimpressive, then Li Na is surely the­ favourite, no?

    From ~JYP, on Mon 25 May 4:29PM

  15. BomPark I was following your reasoning until you­ mentioned Nadia..............no way will nadia get that­ far!

    From sanchez.santos, on Mon 25 May 4:11PM

  16. Venus, what is going on? everytime you come to PARIS.­ you can not play good. Have you ever thinking that you­ can win the French open. So come on venus. well done­ safina¬` we wish you the best.
    annette, clapham ,­ london

    From aapples14, on Mon 25 May 3:44PM

  17. alisa kleybanova as well as sabine liscki have been­ bundled out of the French Open at the first hurdle, how­ in the world could they have been the conquerer of­ Venus at Charleston and Madrid respectively?
    'by­ fluke' would be quite a probable answer to that.
    by­ the way, Venus's new dress really rocks!

    From Gsfdgsfdg, on Mon 25 May 3:30PM

  18. It's hard to predict how deep Venus will go into­ the tournament.
    Next she has Lucie Safarova, who just­ beat the up and coming Sabine Lisicki of­ Germany.
    Safarova could be a tricky opponent, and I­ could easily see it going to 3 sets once again for­ Venus.
    She'll either have Szavay or Vesnina in­ round 3, I can't see Vesnina being too difficult,­ but Szavay is coming back up the rankings after a poor­ 2008 season and she has already picked up some big wins­ over the likes of Ivanovic.
    I think the girls to look­ out for in Venus's quarter have to be China's­ Li Na and Russia's Nadia Petrova, both of whom­ could easily dispatch Venus if she isn't on form.
    I­ can definately seeing at least one of China's girls­ making the 4th round or quarter final, maybe 2 or all 3­ of the girls.
    _

    From ~JYP, on Mon 25 May 3:27PM
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