Tennis: Myskina reaches third round with erratic display

MELBOURNE - French Open champion Anastasia Myskina stumbled into the third round of the Australian Open with an unconvincing 6-4 6-2 victory over unseeded Israeli Tzipora Obziler on Thursday.

An erratic Myskina had trouble finding her range and rhythm as 114th-ranked Obziler took an early 3-1 lead in what should have been a fairly easy outing for the third-seeded Russian.

Myskina and Obziler traded five service breaks between them in an untidy first set on Melbourne Park's Vodafone Arena.

Myskina, who lost in the first round of the Sydney International last week, got her game back on track in the second set and raced to a 4-0 lead.

Even then the 23-year-old right-hander had trouble closing out the match.

Myskina held two match points on Obziler's serve in the seventh game of the second set but gave up both with unforced errors. She finally served the match out in the next game after 68 untidy minutes.

The Russian made 25 unforced errors -- one fewer than Obziler -- and will be looking for a marked improvement if she is to reach the Melbourne quarter-finals for the third successive year.

Myskina will meet American Lisa Raymond in the third round after the 25th seed thrashed Czech Klara Koukalova 6-0 6-1.


Results of women's singles second round matches on Thursday (prefix number denotes seeding):


3-Anastasia Myskina (Russia) beat Tzipora Obziler (Israel) 6-4 6-2


Abigail Spears (US) beat 20-Tatiana Golovin (France) 7-5 6-1


25-Lisa Raymond (US) beat Klara Koukalova (Czech Republic) 6-0 6-1


- REUTERS