Sony Ericsson WTA Tour : 2006


Clijsters, Mauresmo, Pierce Victorious in First Round

It was a clean start for all of the top seeds on the bottom half of the women\'s singles draw on Tuesday afternoon, as first round action continued at the 2006 Australian Open

The highest seed in action was No.2 seed Kim Clijsters, who cruised past last week\'s Canberra runner-up Yoon Jeong Cho 63 60 in 58 minutes. Clijsters, seen by many as the co-tournament favourite alongside top-ranked Lindsay Davenport, struggled with her consistency in the first set but cleaned up her act in the second, hitting 14 winners to just seven unforced errors in taking six consecutive games from the feisty Korean.

Also advancing to the second round were France\'s top two players, Amelie Mauresmo and Mary Pierce, who had very different experiences in their opening matches. No.3-seeded Mauresmo overcame a disastrous first set, in which she hit nearly twice as many unforced errors to winners, before steadying herself in a 46 62 62 victory in nearly two hours over China\'s Sun TianTian. In a completely different match, No.5-seeded Pierce hit nearly twice as many winners as errors and won exactly twice as many points as her opponent in a 52-minute, 61 61 demolition of Australian wild card Nicole Pratt. Both Frenchwomen seemed to employ a net-rushing attack plan, with Mauresmo winning on 18 of 31 approaches and Pierce capitalizing on an impressive 21 of 22 approaches.

Sharapova, Davenport and Serena Williams went into the second round on Monday.



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