First Round Wraps Up
Published September 02, 2010 12:00
NEW YORK, NY, USA - The seeded teams were a perfect 9-0 in the doubles event at the Open on Thursday, as the first round wrapped up. Only two teams were pushed to three - including No.1 seeda and five-time Sony Ericsson WTA Tour titlists this year, Gisela Dulko and Flavia Pennetta.
Dulko and Pennetta, champions this year at Miami, Stuttgart, Rome, Bastad and Montréal, dropped serve three times in the first set - Dulko once, Pennetta twice - but rallied back to win in three sets against the dangerous Spanish-Czech combo of Arantxa Parra Santonja and Renata Voracova, 46 61 62.
No.4 seeds Kveta Peschke and Katarina Srebotnik, No.5 seeds Lisa Raymond and Rennae Stubbs and No.6 seeds Vania King and Yaroslava Shvedova were also winners, with Wimbledon champs King and Shvedova scoring a 63 60 rout of Jelena Kostanic Tosic and Romina Oprandi.
"I was exhausted physically and mentally after yesterday's singles match," said King, who fell to Daniela Hantuchova in the second round of the individual event the day before, 57 63 64. "I went to play mixed last night and was worried I'd cramp or worse, as I had trouble keeping my heart rate down because of dehydration. But I thought I played pretty well last night and this morning didn't have any lingering effects, just fatigue. In our match today, I had no problems!
"Slava and I got off to a slow start, but as usual, we soon combined and clicked well and had lots of fun! I think it's fair to say we both enjoy playing big matches in big stadiums, so hopefully we will be there again soon."
Two-time Grand Slam doubles champion Alicia Molik and recent French Open singles winner Francesca Schiavone were among the all-star duos in action but they unfortunately lost to Polona Hercog and Petra Martic, 76(4) 63.
