BRISBANE, Australia (AP)—Serena Williams won in her initial match since shedding the U.S. Open up last very last September, beating Chanelle Scheepers of South Africa 6-2, six-3 on Monday at the Brisbane Worldwide.
Williams had her service damaged in the opening video game prior to settling in. She essential just 68 minutes to advance, firing seven aces and using advantage of 8 ambigu-faults by Scheepers.
In other matches, former No. one-ranked Ana Ivanovic conquer Tamira Paszek of Austria 6-three, six-3 and American Vania King defeat Melinda Czink of Hungary 6-3, six-four.
Sam Stosur, who beat Williams for the U.S. Open title, performs her opening match at Pat Rafter Arena on Monday night time.
Top rated-seeded Andy Murray plays his opening men’s match on Tuesday. On Monday, Denis Istoman of Uzbekistan sophisticated when Florian Mayer of Germany retired with an undisclosed injuries while trailing 7-6 (5), 2-3.
Ivanovic will play Australian Open defending champion Kim Clijsters in the 2nd spherical, one of the toughest either player has faced so early in a tournament.
The final time the two players fulfilled, previous French Open champion Ivanovic blew 5 match factors at Miami very last March. Ivanovic had several break points when top 5-one in the determining set just before Clijsters came back again to win seven-6 (4), 3-six, 7-six (5) and boost her occupation report with Ivanovic to 4-.
“Last time it was a challenging a single for me,” Ivanovic mentioned Monday. “It would be wonderful to change a match level. I will go out there and exam myself, push and see how significantly absent I am from the leading players.”
Ivanovic finished 2011 outside the leading twenty for just the 2nd time because 2004 following a sequence of injuries.
“Hopefully this time I can get it a stage further,” Ivanovic said.
Clijsters has played just 1 match given that returning from an stomach damage that prevented her from defending her U.S. Open up title, a 6-one, 6-four 1st-round win the following over Romania’s Simona Halep on Sunday.
