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Sharapova breezes past Benesova
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“It’s really warm here towards all the players. I love coming here, I love the country itself, I love Tokyo, so it’s always a fun trip”.
Maria Sharapova breezed past Iveta Benesova of the Czech Republic at the Pan Pacific Open on Thursday to stay on course for a potential final showdown against Jelena Jankovic.
The Russian former World No. 1, champion here in 2005 but unseeded this year, shrugged off a service break down in each set before scoring a 6-4, 7-5 victory to advance.
Sharapova, who lost the opening game after a doublefault, hit an easy forehand winner at the net to make it 4-4 in the eighth before taking the following two games and the set. For Sharapova, it was her 13th consecutive singles win.
She claimed her first career WTA title at the 2003 Japan Open and defended the title the following year.
“It’s always wonderful to come back to a place where you had such great success and good memories, and just feel like I really get the crowd’s support”, said Sharapova.
“It’s really warm here towards all the players. I love coming here, I love the country itself, I love Tokyo, so it’s always a fun trip”.
Seventh seed Serb Jankovic, another former World No. 1, powered her way through to a 6-4, 6-3 victory over Marion Bartoli, putting an end to her match-losing streak against the French 14th seed.
“Sometimes I dropped service games but I held many of them, and broke her serve a couple of times. I thought I did quite well”, said Jankovic, reducing her record against Bartoli to 4-5.
Fifteenth seed Li Na celebrated China’s 60th anniversary day with a hard-worked 7-6(7), 4-6, 7-6(4) victory over Victoria Azarenka of Belarus for a place against Jankovic.
At the Kuala Lumpur Open, Rohan Bopanna’s dream run ended after losing a valiant fight against World No. 12 Fernando Gonzalez of Chile in the second round.
Bopanna, who entered the tournament via qualifying, put up a brave fight before losing 4-6, 6-3, 4-6 to the fourth seed Gonzalez in the $947,750 hard court event.
The Indian Davis Cupper fetched 20 ranking points and got $14,760 for his effort.
At the Thailand Open, Gilles Simon of France tested his chronic sore knee with a 6-2, 6-2 defeat of American Kevin Kim while retiring Russian Marat Safin ticked up another tournament loss on Thursday as he winds down his career.
While striking 11 aces to advance easily in 61 minutes, No. 10-ranked Simon admitted that he is concerned about just getting through the last two months of a long and gruelling ATP season.
“I’m happy with how I played today. I needed this match as a test of how I’m doing”, said Simon.
The results: At Tokyo: Pan Pacific Open: Quarterfinals: Jelena Jankovic bt Marion Bartoli 6-4, 6-3; Maria Sharapova bt Iveta Benesova 6-4, 7-5; Li Na bt Victoria Azarenka 7-6(7), 4-6, 7-6(4); Agnieszka Radwanska bt Magdalena Rybarikova 6-3, 6-1.
At Kuala Lumpur: Malaysian Open: Second round: Richard Gasquet bt Joachim Johansson 4-6, 7-6(1), 6-2; Gael Monfils bt Martin Vassallo Arguello 6-4, 6-2; Tomas Berdych bt Simon Greul 6-3, 4-6, 6-3; Fernando Gonzalez bt Rohan Bopanna 6-4, 3-6, 6-4.
At Bangkok: Thailand Open: Second round: Gilles Simon bt Kevin Kim 6-2, 6-2; John Isner bt Mischa Zverev 7-6(5), 6-4; Andreas Beck bt Donald Young 6-1, 6-7(3), 6-4; Marco Chiudinelli bt Marat Safin 6-3, 7-6(4).
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