Davenport advances; Coetzer out

Davenport advances; Coetzer out
Agencies

Tokyo, February 1: American Lindsay Davenport stormed into the quarter-finals of the Pan Pacific Open beating compatriot Meghann Shaughnessy 6-3, 6-2.

On a good day for Japanese players, Shinobu Asagoe claimed the biggest upset of her career by beating South African fourth seed Amanda Coetzer 6-4, 5-7, 7-6 (7-5), while Ai Sugiyama overpowered French fifth seed Sandrine Testud 6-4, 6-4.

Second seed Davenport rode out an early break to take the first set and then proved too powerful for Shaughnessy, winning in about an hour and rarely giving her opponent any breathing room on the fast surface.

Davenport said there was “some disappointment lingering in the air” after her defeat in the semifinals of the Australian Open last week but she was pleased with her start in the $1.2 million tournament.

Davenport now faces a quarter-final match against Croatian veteran Iva Majoli.The last time Majoli beat Davenport was in 1997 when she prevailed in three sets in the quarter-finals of the French Open en route to winning her only major title.Majoli, playing as a wild card in Tokyo, beat off match points against American seventh seed Lisa Raymond for a 6-7 (3-7), 6-2, 7-6 (7-1) victory.

Coetzer was unable to build momentum in the match as almost every time she broke Asagoe’s serve, the Japanese player broke back directly.

In the third set tie-breaker, Coetzer had four unforced errors and was run ragged along the baseline. Asagoe reached the last eight of a tour event for only the second time in her career and will play number eight seed Magdalena Maleeva of Bulgaria.

Ivanisevic knocks out Keifer
Milan: Croatian Goran Ivanisevic knocked Germany’s Nicolas Kiefer out of the Milan indoor tournament today with a 2-6, 6-2, 6-3 victory.

The 29-year-old Ivanisevic, a wild card in the event who has not won a major title in two years, quickly lost the first set and trailed 0-40 in the first game of the second but rallied to win 6-2 against the fourth seed.

With the crowd behind him and his once famed serve proving effectual he clinched the decisive set, showing glimpses of his old form.