AFP
Top three tennis seeds sweep in Bali

Wed Nov 4, 10:43 AM ET

BALI, Indonesia (AFP) - Marion Bartoli made a strong start on the opening day of the Bali Tournament of Champions on Wednesday with the number one winning a group match over Slovak Magdalena Rybarikova 6-4, 6-4.

"I'm really happy to win in two sets," Bartoli said. "I was quite happy with the level of the game.

"Conditions were pretty difficult because the court is very fast and it's not easy to get used to it. There is only the one court and we are 12 players so you can't get a lot of time to practise on it.

"It's the end of the year and everyone is tired so it's not easy."

The Frenchwoman led the way for number two Australian Samantha Stosur, who defeated Agnes Szavay of Hungary 6-2, 3-6, 6-1 and third-seeded US Open semi-finalist Yanina Wickmayer, winner in a battle of generations over Kimiko Date Krumm 7-6 (7/5), 6-3.

Number four German Sabine Lisicki was the odd woman out in this tropical resort, losing her debut match 1-6, 6-3, 6-4 to Aravane Rezai to give France a second victory of the day.

The field at the 600,000-dollar tournament comprises the 10 highest ranking players who have won a WTA International title this year but who did not compete in the season-ending WTA Championships in Qatar, which finished Sunday. Two wild cards are also included.

Bartoli claimed a pair of trophies this year that put her into the Bali field, taking wins at Monterrey and Stanford.

The top seed secured her opening victory after losing serve only once and breaking three times, including in the penultimate game.

Bartoli improved to 47-21 this season with a day off Thursday.

The world number 12 has an extra incentive this week in the tropics after missing a Doha place last week.

"It would have been nice, but this is a great tournament and a great opportunity," said the winner, who lost the 2006 final to Svetlana Kuznetsova when Bali was a regular WTA Tour event.

Second seed Stosur made the best of just one day of training after flying to Bali from doubles in Doha.

The Australian slammed down ten aces and broke five times against Szavay as the nervous Hungarian made a dozen double-faults to seal her fate.

At 20 years of age, Wickmayer is nearly two decades younger than her evergreen opponent Date Krumm, who at 39 is renewing her career after a decade-long pause.

The veteran Japanese, who returned to the WTA in 2008 and claimed lower-level ITF titles in Tokyo and Monzon, Spain, last season, capped her comeback by winning Seoul in September to qualify for the Bali field.

Date Krumm threatened twice with first-set leads, only to lose them.

In the second the Japanese held three break points to lead 4-0, but Wickmayer recovered, winning five straight games to seal victory.

"She's a really tough player," said Wickmayer. "This is one of her favourite surfaces, where it goes really fast. She can take the ball really early.

"I knew I had to play my best tennis today to beat her. I'm really happy to beat her in two sets. She's one of the fittest players on tour right now and if she keeps playing for the next couple of years she'll do really well."

Wickmayer's victory in just over 90 minutes was her 55th of a breakthrough season in which she won both of her career titles.

Rezai, winner of the title at Strasbourg before Roland Garros, took one hour, 44 minutes to secure victory over Lisicki, one of the up and coming players on the circuit.

The Frenchwoman kept the pressure on the 20-year-old German, forcing her to save 11 of 14 break points. Rezai came through to victory despite seven double-faults.

"Everything is very perfect," said Rezai. "It's a but strange for me there are no doubles lines on the court, but I didn't have any problem."

RECOMMEND THIS STORY

Recommend It:

Average (Not Rated)

0.0 stars
» Recommended Stories