Qualifier Li Na of China opened her WTA match at the China Open with winning style as she overpowered Australian Nicole Pratt 6-3, 6-2 to reach the second round yesterday at the Beijing Tennis Centre.

Li Na

It was another story for 7th seed Jelena Dokic of Serbia and Montenegro, who became the only singles seed casualty after being thrashed 6-3, 6-0 by Tamarine Tanasugarn of Thailand.

Tanasugarn, paired with Pratt as top seeds, also advanced into the second round in doubles after beating Milagros Sequera of Venezuela/Samantha Stosur of Australia 6-2, 7-6.

But third seeds Maria Sharapova and Vera Zvonareva of Russia suffered an early exit in doubles as they slumped to Japan's Shinobu Asagoe and Rika Fujiwara 1-6, 6-3, 6-4.

Fourth seeds Zheng Jie/Yan Zi of China then staged an intriguing 6-3, 7-6 victory over Alina Jidkova of Russia and Abigail Spears of USA.

In other singles matches, qualifier Emmanuelle Gagliardi of Switzerland produced an upset as she came back from one set down and overcame Kristina Brandi of Puerto Rico 2-6, 6-4, 6-3 while Vera Douchevina became the fifth Russian in the second round after a 2-6, 6-2, 6-3 rally over Germany's Anca Barna.

Another local favourite Sun Tiantian, who picked up the women's doubles gold medal at Athens, failed to display another sparkling performance as she was ushered out by powerstroker Sanda Mamic of Croatia 6-4, 6-2.

"I didn't feel good today", Sun Tiantian said. "We participated in a lot of business activities lately and haven't trained systematically."

Sun could not find the rhythm throughout the match with a handful of unforced errors, while Mamic seized the chance and broke her in the fourth game of the first set to take charge.

Favoured pair Sharapova/Zvonareva started strong, relying on powerful forehands, accurate net winners and taking only 21 minutes to win the first set.

But the Japanese pair showing better teamwork began to control the match in the second, levelling at 1-1.

The grueling Japanese broke the Russians serves twice and Sharapova returned the ball into the net to hand them a sweet victory.

Fujiwara staged perfect cooperation with 28-year-old Asagoe, the quarter-finalist of US Open while the Russian pair paid the price for their 35 unforced errors and 11 double faults.

Sharapova will open her WTA singles match today in a second round match against her fellow Russian Tatiana Panova.

(China Daily September 22, 2004)