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Tuesday, October 2, 2007

Tennis News

Lu and Sania advance in Japan

TOKYO: Taiwan number one Lu Yen-hsun fought off a ferocious challenge from Asian Games gold medalist Danai Udomchoke to move into the Japan Open second round here yesterday.

Lu, ranked 96 in the world, fought back from one set down to win the next two and run out eventual winner 6-7 (4-7), 7-6 (9-7), 6-1.

Yen-hsun set up a second-round meeting with Asian Games silver medallist and ninth seed Lee Hyung-taik of South Korea.

Hyung-taik received a first-round bye with other top seeds including number one here David Ferrer of Spain, Tomas Berdych of the Czech Republic, third seed Richard Gasquet of France and Australia's Lleyton Hewitt of Australia.

Meanwhile, Indian star Sania Mirza (pic), second seed, overwhelmed Japan's Ayumi Morita by hitting an array of power-packed strokes from the baseline to score a 6-0, 6-4 victory in the women's singles first round.

The 20-year-old Sania, who reached the semi-finals in her only appearance here two years ago, found herself in trouble facing a couple of service return winners off the Japanese to lose the first game of the second set.

But she broke back in the fourth and eighth games to take a 5-3 lead and, although she failed to serve out for the match in the following game, added another break to finish off the 66-minute match. – AFP


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