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Short visit Sanchez-Vicario bounced from Family Circle Cup
Updated: Wednesday April 18, 2001 11:16 PM
CHARLESTON, S.C. (AP) -- Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario's record 15th singles appearance at the Family Circle was one of her shortest as she lost to Elena Likhovtseva 6-3, 6-4 Wednesday night. The fifth-seeded Sachez-Vicario has been one of the tournament's most successful performers. Her 28 match wins rank third behind Chris Evert (50) and Martina Navratilova (36) on Family Circle's list. But the 29-year-old Spaniard, seeded fifth here and ranked 10th in the world, didn't look sharp in her first match at the new Tennis Centre at Daniel Island. She quickly fell behind Likhovtseva 3-5, 1-3 before a brief rally evened the second set. Then Likhovtseva, ranked 39th in the world, won eight straight points to put herself in position for the upset. Sanchez-Vicario held off two match points to win the set's ninth game, but netted a forehand and sent Likhovtseva's 100 mph serve past the baseline to lose in the second round or earlier for just the fourth time since she first came here in 1987. "I knew how to play Arantxa and thought I could beat her," Likhovtseva said. "I came in to it thinking I had nothing to lose." Sanchez-Vicario's appearance broke a tie with Rosie Casals with 14 singles competitions at the Family Circle. There were few other upsets in the second round. Australian Open champion Jennifer Capriati and Amelie Mauresmo, who has won her last three events, each opened with victories. The second-seeded Capriati, playing for the first time since losing the Ericsson Open final to Venus Williams on March 31, won eight consecutive games during one stretch to defeat Rossana de los Rios 6-4, 6-3. Mauresmo, seeded seventh, ran her match streak to 15 straight by beating Marissa Irvin 6-2, 3-6, 6-3. Other seeded players who won Wednesday included No. 4 Amanda Coetzer, No. 6 Mary Pierce, No. 9 Paola Suarez, No. 11 Lisa Raymond and No. 15 Henrieta Nagyova. Eighth-seeded Chanda Rubin withdrew from her opening match with Ruxandra Dragomir Ilie only two games from victory. Rubin was ahead 6-4, 4-4 when she strained her left Achilles' tendon. And No. 12 Meghann Shaugnessy lost to Marlene Weingartner 6-3, 6-3. Capriati had trouble on the cold, wind-swept court at the Tennis Centre at Daniel Island. But when the weather heated up, so did Capriati's game. Trailing 4-2 in the opening set, Capriati showed the strong ground strokes with which she won her first Grand Slam title earlier this year in Australia. She reeled off eight consecutive games to take control. "I think I just picked up my level a little bit and began playing more aggressive," Capriati said. "For my first match on clay, I made the shots I needed to make." De los Rios recovered to 4-3 in the final set and had five chances in the next game to tie things up. But she hit a forehand long and then put a similar shot into the net as Capriati won. Mauresmo also had her troubles, playing the morning's first match. After losing the opening set, Irvin won eight of next 11 games and was ahead 2-0 in the third. That's when Mauresmo -- a winner consecutively at Paris, Nice and Amelia Island -- fought her way back. She won the set's fifth game at love to lead 3-2. Mauresmo lost only two points the final two games, serving out the match with a 95 mph ace. Coetzer, the 1998 champion at this tournament, topped Tatiana Panova 6-2, 6-2. Pierce, who swept to the Family Circle title a year ago with five matches of an hour or less, nearly did it again with her 62-minute, 6-2, 6-2 victory against Jennifer Hopkins.
She withdrew from the event at Amelia Island with a back injury but said she didn't feel any pain Wednesday.
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