Bartoli leads seeded players to 2nd round of Pan Pacific Open

Tokyo, Japan (4E Sports) – Four seeded players, led by No. 9 Marion Bartoli, defeated respective rivals Monday to make it to the second round of the Toray Pan Pacific Open.

Bartoli returned from gastrointestinal illness that forced her to retire in the first round in Guangzhou a week ago and defeated hometown favorite Kimiko Date-Krumm, 6-1, 6-4.

She stormed out to a 3-1 lead in the second set but the veteran Japanese fought her way back and tied the count at three. Then, Bartoli broke Date-Krumm and served out the match for the win.

“Kimiko played very well today,” Bartoli said. “She made it hard for me in the second set, but I knew if I could stay strong and focused I could win the match in straight sets, and I’m happy I could serve it out there.”

Other seeded players, including No. 10 Caroline Wozniacki, No. 15 Kaia Kanepi and No. 16 Lucie Safarova, also advanced together with Bartoli.

Wozniacki, who earlier won her first WTA title of the year in Seoul, was the only one who dropped a set before eliminating Serbian qualifier Bojana Jovanovski , 6-0, 3-6, 6-4.

“After the first set I thought to myself I was feeling really good and playing well, although I felt a little bit tired still,” Wozniacki said. “I felt like I made just one or two unforced errors in the second set and she was right in there.”

Also advancing to the next round were Francesca Schiavone, Julia Goerges, Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, Zheng Jie, Klara Zakopalova, Tamira Paszek, Daniela Hantuchova, Urszula Radwanska, Simona Halep and qualifiers Pauline Parmentier, Heather Watson, Johanna Larsson and Jamie Hampton.

Meanwhile, qualifier Michael Yani defeated Brian Baker 6-3, 7-6(4) in one hour and 42 minutes in an all-American first-round clash Monday at the Malaysian Open in Kuala Lumpur.

The No. 238-ranked Yani converted three of his 10 break point chances to capture his first tour-level win of the season, and just the fourth of his career.

Igor Sijsling beat wild card Ariez Elyaas Deen Heshaam 6-2, 6-1 in 51 minutes while World No. 151 Jimmy Wang hit nine aces to beat qualifier Riccardo Ghedin, 6-3, 6-3 in 88 minutes.

At the Thailand Open, German Philipp Petzschner cruised past Thai wild card Peerakiat Siriluethaiwattana 6-1, 6-2 in 58 minutes Monday to advance to the second round of the Thailand Open.

Eight main draw singles matches are scheduled to be played in Bangkok Tuesday.

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