Supreme Start To Scheepers' Title Defense
Published September 17, 2012 12:35
GUANGZHOU, China - Chanelle Scheepers made the perfect start to her defense of the GRC Bank Guangzhou International Women's Open on Monday with a comfortable win over Chinese wildcard Wang Qiang.
Watch live action from Guangzhou on Friday and Saturday on WTA Live!
In her first match since a disappointing opening round exit at the US Open, it was clear from the outset that Scheepers was not suffering from any post-New York hangover, winning 10 of the first 11 points during a first set whitewash.
The second set followed a similar pattern with the South African racing into an early lead before weathering some late pressure from Wang to close the match out, 60 63.
"It's good to have the win," Scheepers said. "She started playing better in the second set and was really starting to hit her targets so it was good to get through.
"Every tournament is tough and there are a lot of good players here. It doesn't matter if they're Top 10 or lower down, everyone can play really good tennis so I'm just going to take it match by match this week."
Meeting Scheepers in the second round is Bojana Jovanovski, who continued her recent run of good form with a 61 63 win over Timea Babos.
Elsewhere, there were wins for Laura Robson and Mandy Minella. Robson, playing her first match since a breakthrough run at the US Open, enjoyed an easy afternoon's work, sprinting into a 62 31 lead before a thigh injury forced her opponent, María-Teresa Torró-Flor, to retire.
Minella, on the other hand, was given a far sterner test, edging out Pauline Parmentier, 75 36 63.
While the singles draw may have been devoid of any real surprises, the same could not be said for the doubles. Shuko Aoyama and Chang Kai-Chen overcame a second set tie-break collapse to eventually knock out No.4 seeds Nina Bratchikova and Alla Kudryavtseva, 61 67(5) 101.
The only other match saw No.2 seeds and siblings Chan Hao-Ching and Chan Yung-Jan defeat Chan Chin-Wei and Sun Sheng-Nan, 76(4) 63.
Watch live action from Guangzhou on Friday and Saturday on WTA Live!
In her first match since a disappointing opening round exit at the US Open, it was clear from the outset that Scheepers was not suffering from any post-New York hangover, winning 10 of the first 11 points during a first set whitewash.
The second set followed a similar pattern with the South African racing into an early lead before weathering some late pressure from Wang to close the match out, 60 63.
"It's good to have the win," Scheepers said. "She started playing better in the second set and was really starting to hit her targets so it was good to get through.
"Every tournament is tough and there are a lot of good players here. It doesn't matter if they're Top 10 or lower down, everyone can play really good tennis so I'm just going to take it match by match this week."
Meeting Scheepers in the second round is Bojana Jovanovski, who continued her recent run of good form with a 61 63 win over Timea Babos.
Elsewhere, there were wins for Laura Robson and Mandy Minella. Robson, playing her first match since a breakthrough run at the US Open, enjoyed an easy afternoon's work, sprinting into a 62 31 lead before a thigh injury forced her opponent, María-Teresa Torró-Flor, to retire.
Minella, on the other hand, was given a far sterner test, edging out Pauline Parmentier, 75 36 63.
While the singles draw may have been devoid of any real surprises, the same could not be said for the doubles. Shuko Aoyama and Chang Kai-Chen overcame a second set tie-break collapse to eventually knock out No.4 seeds Nina Bratchikova and Alla Kudryavtseva, 61 67(5) 101.
The only other match saw No.2 seeds and siblings Chan Hao-Ching and Chan Yung-Jan defeat Chan Chin-Wei and Sun Sheng-Nan, 76(4) 63.
