Venus, Davenport earn convincing wins

CARLSBAD, California (AP) -- Top-seeded Venus Williams began her quest for a record third consecutive Acura Classic title Wednesday, defeating unseeded Janette Husarova of Slovokia 6-4, 6-1 in 66 minutes at La Costa Resort and Spa.

Williams struggled early in the first set, trailing 2-1 to Husarova, who broke the defending champion's serve four times in the match.

"She was just swinging, she had nothing to lose," Williams said. "I was just missing too many shots in the first set, and that gave her the lead."

In the end, however, Williams was too physical for Husarova, who tried unsuccessfully more than a dozen times to score on drop shots.

When asked if she had ever had an opponent attempt that many drop shots on her, Williams said, "No, never."

In the top day match, American Lindsay Davenport, in her second WTA tournament since undergoing knee surgery, needed a little more than an hour to defeat Marie-Gaianeh Mikaelian of Switzerland 6-3, 6-0.

"I'm really happy where I am at. It really is above what I expected," said Davenport, who injured her right knee last November and underwent surgery in January. "I still think that I have some good years left in me."

Earlier in the day, a second-round match between No. 7 Daniela Hantuchova of Slovokia and Ai Sugiyama of Japan ended with two controversial calls by chair umpire Denis Overberg with Sugiyama winning 6-4, 1-6, 7-5.

After receiving a warning for taking excessive time between points, Hantuchova was assessed a rare point penalty for taking too much time setting up to receive a serve. The point gave Sugiyama the advantage in a game that she eventually won to take a 6-5 lead in the third and deciding set.

In the next game, Hantuchova was penalized again for taking too much time to serve. That penalty gave Sugiyama match point.

Hantuchova stared at Overberg in disbelief before approaching the net, conceding the loss.

"I've never heard of this. I felt that I could have won, but somebody came and took the match away from me," she said. "It was a great match and to have it end like that is really disappointing. But there is nothing that I can do now."

Sugiyama said she also felt sorry about the way the match finished.

"It's tough to lose a match like that, but she was taking a little bit more time than normal," Sugiyama said.

In other second-round matches, fifth-seeded Kim Clijsters of Belgium beat Eleni Danilidou of Greece 6-3, 6-1; No. 10 Magdalena Maleeva of Bulgaria defeated Nathalie Dechy of France 7-5, 7-5; Katarina Srebotnik of Slovenia upset No. 11 Daja Bedanova of the Czech Republic 6-4, 3-6, 6-2; No. 13 Meghann Shaughnessy eliminated Meilen Tu 6-1, 6-2; No. 15 Anne Kremer of Luxembourg topped Greta Arn of Germany 5-7, 6-3, 6-0; Conchita Martinez of Spain upset 16th-seeded Tatiana Panova of Russia 5-7, 6-2, 7-6 (4); and Anna Kournikova of Russia topped Jennifer Hopkins 6-2, 6-4.

In the only third-round matches, No. 12 Anna Smashnova of Israel upset No. 8 Elena Dementieva of Russia 6-2, 5-7, 7-6 (2), and No. 6 Jelena Dokic of Yugoslavia beat No. 9 Russian Anastasia Myskina 6-4, 6-3.

The Acura Classic, one of the top non-major stops on the WTA, is in its 19th year and has a $775,000 purse.

 

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