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Bartoli gets defence off to rousing start
STANFORD, California: France’s Marion Bartoli, who is seeking to defend her Stanford title, was one of five seeds to reach the second round in the Bank of West Classic, easily beating Ashley Harkleroad 6-1, 6-4.
The fourth-seeded Bartoli beat American Harkleroad for the first time in three meetings, though Tuesday was their first meeting in six years.
Bartoli, who is ranked 14th in the world, next faces former world number one Ana Ivanovic in the second round. Bartoli won 81 percent of her first serve points.
It was just the second match in two years on the WTA Tour for Harkleroad.
In the night match, Russian fifth seed Maria Sharapova made a successful return to the hardcourts, beating China’s Zheng Jie 6-4, 7-5.
Sharapova avenged a loss to Zheng the last time she played on hardcourt at Indian Wells tournament in the California desert four months ago. The 15th-ranked Sharapova, who missed six weeks with a right elbow injury during the spring, won for the 15th time in her last 18 matches.
In other first-round matches, sixth-seeded Shahar Peer of Israel beat Slovakia’s Daniela Hantuchova 0-6, 6-4, 6-3; No 7 Yanina Wickmayer of Belgium downed Taipei’s Chan Yung-Jan 6-3, 6-4; Belarus’ Victoria Azarenka, the eighth seed, topped Japan’s Ayumi Morita 6-0, 6-2; qualifier Olga Savchuk of Ukraine knocked off American Jill Craybas 6-3, 6-3; USA’s Christina McHale defeated Taipei’s Chang Kai-Chen 3-6, 6-0, 6-2, and Russian Maria Kirilenko beat fellow qualifier Mirjana Lucic of Croatia 6-1, 6-4.
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