[情報] Kournikova ends her Grand Slam drought

[establish (Est)]

Kournikova ends her Grand Slam drought
Monday, 13 January, 2003
by Tim Brimblecombe

Anna Kournikova ended a two-year Grand Slam drought to cruise into the second-
round of the Australian Open with 6-1, 6-2 win against Slovakia's Henrieta
Nagyova.

Kournikova has not won a Grand Slam singles match for two years, but needed
just 50 minutes to eliminate Nagyova. The last time the 21-year-old progress
beyond the first-round of a Grand Slam was when she made the 2001 Australian
Open quarter-finals. She missed the remainder of the Grand Slams during that
year and lost in the first-round in each of last year's majors.

After cruising through the first set, the glamour queen was down 2-0 in the
second set before reeling off six consecutive games for the impressive victory.
 Kournikova, who served and stroked the ball confidently throughout her match,
 was delighted with her performance, as was her army of fans who are now
guaranteed another appearance by the Russian star in the second-round.

Elsewhere, No.5 seed Justine Henin-Hardenne also impressed in her first-round
 performance with a 6-3, 6-4 win against Switzerland's Myriam Casanova.

"I've lost to her before and the last time we played was here," Kournikova
said of her upcoming battle with Henin. "But we've had a couple of close sets
 so I have nothing to lose.

"She's really fast, she doesn't give any free points so I'm really going to
have to be focussed to do well."

Henin-Hardenne needed just 69 minutes to complete the job and set up a
difficult second-round clash against a confident Kournikova. The Belgian
holds a 3-0 match advantage over Kournikova.

No.2 seed Venus Williams started her campaign to stop sister Serena's
dominance of the women's circuit with a 6-4, 6-2 win in 56 minutes against
Russia's Svetlana Kuznetsova. Venus signalled that her serve will again be a
significant factor warming-up with a 193km/h missile. Venus had the fastest
serve of last year's Australian Open with 197km/h.

Slovakia's No.7 seed Daniela Hantuchova was given a torrid test against
Colombia's Fabiola Zuluaga before progressing with a 7-5, 6-7 (1-7), 6-4
victory.

Alexandra Stevenson, the No.15 seed, advanced with a 6-1, 6-4 win against the
 United Kingdom's Elena Baltacha. The No.24 seed, Russia's Tatiana Panova,
was given an early scare before triumphing 7-6 (7-2), 3-6 against Germany's
Angelika Roesch, while No.23 seed Paola Suarez, of Argentina, overcame
Madagascar's Dally Randriantefy 6-4, 6-3.

Australian veteran Rachel McQuillan has been eliminated in the first-round
 with Italian Tathiana Garbin prevailing 6-4, 7-6 (7-3) in their court 19
encounter.

The 31-year-old from New South Wales was up a break early in the second set,
 but could not withstand the challenge from her 25-year-old Italian opponent
and was eventually overrun.

In other women's singles matches completed on the opening day of the tournament
, Russian Nadia Petrova became the first person through to the second-round,
after a comprehensive victory over German Greta Arn 6-2, 6-1.

The first seed to win through was No.21 Ai Sugiyama, who overcame Indonesia's
Angelique Widjaja in three tough sets 6-3, 4-6, 6-2. Sugiyama's compatriot
Akiko Morigami was also successful with a 6-2 6-1 win against Slovakia's
Stanislava Hrozenska as was Italy's Adriana Serra Zanetti who beat Russia's
Elena Likhovtseva 7-6 (8-6) 6-4.

Russia's Dinara Safina will be spending the rest of the tournament watching
brother Marat in the men's draw after falling to Slovenia's Katarina
Srebotnik 6-3, 3-6, 6-3.
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Anna果然還是最受矚目的！？不論如何，恭喜她過了第一輪…下一輪將對上Henin。
而Safin的妹妹Safina則首輪落敗





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→ lyosha:Henin嗎....加油了...^^