Reigning champion Marion Bartoli and former
World No. 1 Maria Sharapova were first-round victors Tuesday at the $700,000
Bank of the West Classic tennis event.
The former Wimbledon runner-up Bartoli handled American Ashley Harkleroad 6-1,
6-4 on the hardcourts at Taube Family Tennis Stadium, while Sharapova
straight-setted Zheng Jie of China, 6-4, 7-5.
Bartoli, seeded fourth this week, surprised American Venus Williams in last
year's Stanford finale and was the runner-up here in 2008. The Frenchwoman
lost to Williams in the 2007 Wimbledon final.
In other seeded play: sixth-seeded Shahar Peer of Israel recovered from a slow
start to upend Daniela Hantuchova of Slovakia, 0-6, 6-4, 6-3; No. 7 Yanina
Wickmayer of Belgium downed China's Yung-Jan Chan, 6-3, 6-1; and Victoria
Azarenka of Belarus, seeded eighth, cruised past Ayumi Morita of Japan, 6-0,
6-2.
American Melanie Oudin defeated Canadian Aleksandra Wozniak, the 2008
champion, 6-7 (6-8), 7-5, 6-3.
Other first-round winners included Maria Kirilenko, Olga Savchuk and Christina
McHale, who ousted Mirjana Lucic, Jill Craybas and Kai-Chen Chang,
respectively.
This week's top seeds, both of whom received opening-round byes, are French
Open runner-up Samantha Stosur and Russian star Elena Dementieva, who has
been sidelined by a calf injury since retiring from her semifinal match
against Francesca Schiavone at the French Open early last month. Stosur lost
to Schiavone in the finale at Roland Garros.
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