Tennis: Stuttering first win for top seed

By TERRY MADDAFORD

Top seed Elena Likhovtseva got through a nervous first-up effort to win her opening singles at the Auckland international tennis tournament at Stanley St yesterday but she was not alone in finding the return to the court after the Christmas break a difficult one.

The Russian, ranked 18th in the year-opening list, went through to the second round of the ASB Bank Classic but her 6-3 6-3 win over unseeded Venezuelan Alejandra Vento, ranked 110, was riddled with errors.

However, New Zealand No 2 and wildcard entry Rewa Hudson made a not-unexpected early exit, beaten in straight sets by Holland's Amanda Hopmans, who is ranked 83rd in the world compared with Hudson's 393rd.

Likhovtseva got through the 1h 25m centre court match with some relief after losing in the first round in her only previous Auckland outing two years ago.

Her victory has set up an intriguing second-round clash with unseeded Slovenian Katarina Srebotnik.

The 18-year-old started strongly against unseeded American Brie Rippner in a game delayed by intermittent showers and quickly raced to 2-0 after winning the first seven points.

Rippner hit back, breaking Srebotnik's second serve and eventually levelling at 3-3 and 4-4 before the Slovenian held serve in the ninth game and broke Rippner again in the 10th to win the first set 6-4.

Srebotnik, who started 1999 with a ranking of 281 and ended it at 66, raced to 4-1 in the second set before taking it 6-2, dropping only six points on service.

"The wind made it difficult out there," said Srebotnik. "It was my first match since November, so I have to be happy to win."

Eighth seed Maureen Drake (Canada) was the tournament's first casualty, losing to unseeded Frenchwoman Emilie Loit in straight sets. Within minutes seventh seed Kristina Brandi (US) joined her on the sideline, thrashed 6-1 6-1 by Paola Suarez (Argentina).

Canadian Vanessa Webb continued her run through the qualifying draw with a straight-sets win - albeit in two tiebreaks - over Petra Rampre (Slovenia) to win a place in the main event.

Webb beat 1997 champion Marion Maruska in the first round of qualifying and has got into the main draw without dropping a set. She will meet fourth seed Barbara Schwartz (Austria) in the first round proper today.

Florencia Labat (Argentina) also won through to the main draw but she had to come back from a set down - the first she had dropped - to beat Germany's Angelika Bachmann 4-6 6-3 6-2.

New Zealand's Leanne Baker and doubles partner Petra Rampre, from Slovenia, lost to Zimbabwe's Cara Black and France's Alexandra Fusai 6-3, 6-1.

Today's schedule (all courts first game 11 am).-

Court one: Wartusch v Nejedly, followed by Webb v Schwartz, Noorlander v Black, Sanchez Lorenzo v Vavrinec.

Night games (from 7 pm): Baker v Kremer, Krizan/Srebotnik v Hopmans/Noorlander. Court four: Drake/Schlukebir v Asagoe/Yoshida, Shaughnessy v Labat, Krivencheva/Ortuno v Ruano Pascal/Suarez, Barclay/Webb v qualifiers and (not before 4pm) Mihalache/Valekova v Labat/Likhovtseva.

Court six: Diaz Oliva v Nola, Weingartner v Llagostera, Bacheva v Craybas.