Mauresmo overcomes rusty start
TORONTO (AP) – Amelie Mauresmo acknowledged she was rusty, and Svetlana Kuznetsova appeared shaky Tuesday at the Rogers Cup. Second-seeded Mauresmo, the defending champion, opened the women’s tennis tournament with a 6-2, 6-3 second-round win over Dally Randriantefy of Madagascar. Kuznetsova, the No. 3 seed from Russia, rallied from a horrible start to win 2-6, 7-5, 6-4 over Anabel Medina Garrigues of Spain.
Meanwhile, in first-round action, 11th-seeded Jelena Jankovic of Serbia and Montenegro was upset by Na Li of China 6-4, 5-7, 6-2; No. 12 Ana Ivanovic of Serbia and Montenegro defeated Tathiana Garbin of Italy 6-2, 7-6 (3), and No. 10 Nathalie Dechy of France downed Fabiola Zuluaga of Colombia 6-2, 6-4.
Also, No. 13 seed Daniela Hantuchova of Slovakia retired from her match against Alina Jidkova of Russia due to heat illness. The score was tied 4-4 in the third set when Hantuchova dropped out. Jidkova won the first set 6-4 while Hantuchova took the second 6-4.
Earlier in the day, No. 8 Mary Pierce of France withdrew from the tournament due to a strained right quadriceps. It’s the same injury that forced her to drop out of the JP Morgan Chase Open in Los Angeles last week.
“She wants to perform well at the Open,” tournament director Stacey Allaster said. “I understand why she doesn’t want to push if for this week.”
Pierce is the fifth top-20 player to withdraw from the event in the past week. On Sunday, top-seeded Russian Maria Sharapova backed out due to a strained chest muscle. American Venus Williams, ranked ninth in the world, withdrew last week due to the flu.
Mauresmo said it’s just a matter of playing some more matches to shake off the cobwebs that settled while she was on her break.
“I think for today it’s really something to put on the lack of competition for me,” she said. “With three or four matches under my belt, I don’t think it would have happened this way.”
Mauresmo decided to take the last month off to relax and practice so she would be refreshed for the U.S. Open and the remainder of the season. It was a much-needed break, she said.
“If we want, we can play 11 months a year,” Mauresmo said. “But I’m not capable of doing that. I almost didn’t stop during the first six months of the season. At some point, I had to rest a little bit and then get ready for the second part of the season.
“I’m not a machine.”