Monday 5th February

by Barry Wood

Several of the more fancied players found the going hard, but all eventually advanced into the second round of the Pattaya Open on Monday.

The score tells the story in third seed Mara Santangelo's 6-4 5-7 6-2 win over Jarmila Gajdosova. The Italian need nearly two hours to beat her Slovak opponent, although she might had tied the match up in straight sets after holding a match point at 5-4.

But Santangelo often had to come from behind. In fact, she did so in each set. Things started going wrong for her after she had her left thigh strapped when leading 3-2 in the opening set. She then dropped the next two games, but recovered with breaks at 3-4 and 5-4.

Santangelo also had to level for 3-3 and 4-4 after Gajdosova broke twice in the second set. The Italian then squandered the match point, and perhaps distracted by that and a couple of controversial line call decisions that went against her, she conceded her serve again at 6-5. She was also broken in the opening game of the final set before finally taking control by winning six straight games.

Indian icon Sania Mirza was also stretched, but only for a set before she unleashed her more powerful game to earn a 7-6(7-1) 6-0 win over Catalina Castano of Columbia. The number five seed didn't make the best of starts, dropping her serve with a double-fault to fall behind 2-0. And although she recovered to lead 5-3, she was struggling to find any consistency, sometimes hitting some impressive winners with her big forehand, but also going for broke too often and making unnecessary errors.

Sania missed a set point at 5-4, but her game finally snapped into top gear in the tiebreak. She swept that with ease, and carried the momentum into the second set, overwhelming her discouraged opponent.

"I started a little slow, but you're getting into a new tournament, new balls, new atmosphere, and I'd never played her, so I was trying get a feel of how she plays," Sania explained. "I should have finished the first set at 5-4, but from the tiebreak onwards I played like I wanted to play. I stopped giving any easy points.

"I'm happy with the way I played for a first match. It's good to be through. It's always good to win the first match. That's the toughest match to get through, mentally especially." Alicia Molik beat Kateryna Bondarenko 6-2 6-2, which sounds easy. But it wasn't. Aussie Alicia broke to lead 2-0, but had to recover a break midway through the set. Then it took her four game points to break for the set in a marathon game that saw Bondarenko serve four double-faults but still hold five game points.

In the second set, Molik had to be patient as she saved two break points to hold for 1-0, and then let six break points slip away before she broke for 3-1 with her seventh. Another break at 5-2 gave her victory.

In other matches, fourth seed Shuai Peng of China overwhelmed Su-wei Hsieh from Taiwan 6-1 6-2, and Russia's Anastassia Rodionova edged past Thailand's Montinee Tangphong 7-5 7-6(7-4).

But there was still some encouraging news for Thai tennis fans, as not only did two local players - Nudnida Luangnam and Noppawan Lertcheewakarn - reach the final qualifying round, but Noppawan claimed a 6-4 6-2 victory over top-seeded qualifier Melinda Czink to earn a place in the main draw. She will now play eighth seed Aiko Nakamura of Japan.

The other three qualifiers are Andreja Klepac of Slovenia, Tzipora Obziler of Israel and Meng Yuan of China.