Stosur topples Martinez

MADRID: World number nine Samantha Stosur defeated Spanish Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez in the second round 7-6 (7/2) 6-4 of the Madrid WTA tournament on Tuesday.

Martinez has recently claimed the title for the Rome masters after defeating world number four Jelena Jankovic. Australian Stosur has only claimed one clay court loss this season against four-time French Open champion Justine Henin in the Stuttgart final last weekend. Meanwhile, World number 34 Ernest Gulbis, who had recently ousted World number one Roger Federer at the Italian Open, beat Albert Montanes 7-5, 6-1 in the first round of the Madrid Open.

Gulbis, who claimed a straight-sets win, is poised to become a seed for the French Open, and will now face Mikhail Youzhny or Lukas Lacko in the next round. Former Australian Open finalist Marcos Baghdatis also reigned victorious and booked his second round berth after thrashing Marco Chiudinelli 6-3 6-4. Safina takes an exit Defending Madrid champion Dinara Safina’s French Open preparations suffered a shock setback when she lost 7-6 7-6 to Czech qualifier Klara Zakopalova in the Madrid Open first round on Monday.

In addition, Grand slam winners Justine Henin, Maria Sharapova and Svetlana Kuznetsova also lost their first-round matches. World number two Caroline Wozniacki looked to have recovered from a recent ankle injury and brushed aside another Czech qualifier Petra Kvitova 6-4 6-2 in the first round. In other first round action, eighthseeded Australian Samantha Stosur edged past Argentine Gisela Dulko 7-6 7-5 and 16th seed Nadia Petrova beat Russian compatriot Elena Vesnina 4-6 6-2 6-3.

William sisters bulldoze through World number one Serena Williams and world number three Venus Williams formed a deadly duo and sent the Polish Alicja Rosolska and Kazakstan’s Yaroslava Shvdevo packing through a 7-6(7/4) 6-2 score in the doubles match for the Madrid Open on Tuesday.

Published in the Express Tribune, May 12th, 2010.