Opening jitters for third seed

2008-08-27 22:04

New York - Svetlana Kuznetsova shook off an early break and rallied to a 7-6 (3) 6-1 victory over Sorana Cirstea on Wednesday in the second round of the US Open.

Kuznetsova, the 2004 champion and No 3 seed this year, trailed 4-2 in the opening set before getting back on serve and eventually forcing a tiebreak that she dominated against her 18-year-old opponent. She cruised to a 5-0 lead in the second and closed out the match in 1 hour, 13 minutes at Arthur Ashe Stadium.

No 15 seed Patty Schnyder also moved into the third round with a 6-3 6-3 win over Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, the US Open girls' champion two years ago.

In just her fourth career Grand Slam event, Cirstea is forging a bit of a bad habit. Cirstea, who made her debut at a major in this year's Australian Open, led there by a break three times in the opening set against current world No 1 Ana Ivanovic, only to fall 7-5 6-3 in the first-round match.

She reached the second round at the French Open and Wimbledon.

Olympic bronze medallist Vera Zvonareva, of Russia, was sent crashing out, losing her second round match 6-3 6-3 to unseeded Tatiana Perebiynis.

Back-to-back matches

For the 23-year-old Zvonareva this is the first time she hasn't made it to at least the third round in her sixth US Open appearance.

Zvonareva, who is seeded eighth, collected her sixth career title earlier this year before winning the women's singles bronze at the Beijing Olympics.

Ukrainian Perebiynis is ranked 76th in the world and advances to play either Sybille Bammer or Aravane Rezai.

Zvonareva was in the same side of the draw as Jelena Jankovic and Lindsay Davenport.

In the men's singles fifth seed Nikolay Davydenko shrugged off his recent poor form to charge into the second round with a 6-3 6-3 6-3 win over Israel's Dudi Sela.

The Russian has not won back-to-back matches since winning a low-key clay-court tournament in Warsaw in June but seemed to have found his groove to dispatch Sela.

The 27-year-old's only stutter was when he was broken while serving for the match at 5-2 up in the third set but quickly regained his focus to end his 76th-ranked opponent's challenge in the next game.

Davydenko will take on Argentina's Agustin Calleri for a place in round three.

- SAPA