The Sunfeast Open lost much of its attraction today with Indian star Sania Mirza pulling out, but the two seeds in action today — Maria Kirilenko and Yung-Jan Chan — saw to it that there were no more upsets to take the charm out of the meet.
Kirilenko, the fourth seeded Russian, swept away Neha Uberoi 6-2, 6-2. In just 61 minutes, it was all over for the lone Uberoi sibling here.
The other Indian presence, wild card Kyra Shroff, felt the sting of big time tennis when she was blown away by eighth seed Yung-Jan Chan 6-0, 6-0. This morning, long before the formal inauguration of the meet, Russian Ekaterina Ivanaova and Australian Casey Dellacqua got through the formalities of winning their first round matches. While Dellacqua finished hers with business like precision, a 6-2, 6-3 affair that took care of Canadian Aleksandra Wozniak, the Russian Ivanova had to overcome a lost second set to get past Britain’s Naomi Cavaday 6-3, 2-6, 6-2.
Kirilenko’s barrage of forehand winners left Uberoi stunned and the one-sided match showed the Russian’s supremacy.
Dellacqua is a familiar face at the Sunfeast Open, the burly Australian having upset second seed Karolina Sprem in the 2006 edition. Today she got off to a smooth start against a lower ranked Wozniak.
The first match of the day saw a baseline slugfest between British qualifier Cavaday and Ivanova. Cavaday had stretched former Swiss World No.1 Martina Hingis to three sets at Wimbledon this year and has a huge forehand.
... contd.