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Bartoli, Stosur win openers
Low ball: Magdalena Rybarikova of Slovakia hits a return against Marion Bartoli of France during during WTA Bali Open Tennis Tournament round robin at Nusa Dua, Bali, Indonesia, on Wednesday
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span class="inline inline-right">Low ball: Magdalena Rybarikova of Slovakia hits a return against Marion Bartoli of France during during WTA Bali Open Tennis Tournament round robin at Nusa Dua, Bali, Indonesia, on Wednesday. Bartoli won 6-4,6-4. JP/Ricky Yudhistira
Top seed Marion Bartoli and 2nd seeded Samantha Stosur of Australia came through their opening tests on Wednesday at the US$600,000 Commonwealth Bank Tournament of Champions, but the two wildcards in the round-robin tournament lost their group matches.
Bartoli, playing in Group A in the year-end indoor tournament, was a 6-4, 6-4 winner over Magdalena Rybarikova of Slovakia. Stosur, playing the last match of the evening, recouped from a second set loss to beat Hungary’s Agnes Szavay 6-2, 3-6, 6-1 in Group B.
Earlier, France’s 10th seeded Aravane Rezai upset Germany’s Sabine Lisicki, the 4th seed and wildcard holder, in Group D. Youth was served in an encounter of the oldest and youngest players in the event, with 3rd seeded Janina Wickmayer of Belgium overcoming Kimiko Date-Krumm in Group C.
Under the round-robin system, winners from each of four groups will advance to Saturday’s semifinals, with the final played Sunday.
“I’m really pleased to get through this in two sets, because the last time we played in Beijing it was very tough even though I won in three sets,” said Bartoli, the world number 12, who now holds a
3-1 winning record over 46-ranked Rybarikova.
Bartoli, 25, was a finalist in Bali in 2006, when the tournament was played outdoors on hard
court. She described the indoor playing conditions on a wood court as “difficult … the court is
very fast, and there is only the one court to practice on for all the players during the week… but I’m very proud to be associated with this tournament.”
Earlier, Lisicki was highly favored to come through against Rezai.
She had won their only previous encounter at the US Open in September, and has enjoyed a breakthrough year that included her first title at Charleston and a Wimbledon quarterfinal.
The German, ranked 25, came out swinging and made light work of the French player’s feisty baseline game. She scored winners off her powerful serve, and set up easy net putaways with searing groundstrokes to race through the first set 6-1.
Despite her dismal start, Rezai, 22, said she was determined to fight — “that’s the most important thing in tennis”. She immediately broke serve in the second set as Lisicki lost her focus.
Rezai served for the set at 5-2, and despite failing to convert on four set points, a sprayed Lisicki forehand error gave her the set.
“I started committing too many errors and I was too passive,” Lisicki said.
The French player broke again in the third set. Lisicki also knows the importance of fighting, and at 3-4 down she reached breakpoint. After a long rally, Rezai scraped back the ball, with Lisicki poised to strike a high forehand volley. Instead, it landed in the net. Rezai went on to win 1-6, 6-3, 6-4.
“It came at an unexpected angle, and I couldn’t see it in the lights,” Lisicki said of the missed volley. “These things happen.”
She was quietly confident of reaching the last four. “I guess I’ll just have to hope that she loses,” she joked of Rezai’s match against Hungarian Melinda Czink on Thursday.
