TENNIS in DEPTH.

There were no seeded casualties in the women’s event with second seeded Russian Maria Kirilenko leading the way into round two with a straight-forward 7-6 (8/6) 6-1 win over Briton Elena Baltacha. Third seed Anabel Medina Garrigues beat German qualifier Kristina Barrois 6-4 6-1, fourth seed Petra Cetkovska beat Alexandra Panova 6-2 6-1, and fifth seed Jie Zheng was an easy 6-3 6-1 winner over Ekaterina Makarova. Sixth seed Kaia Kanepi and ninth seed Polona Hercog also advanced, while there were wins for Jarmila Gajdosova, Maria Joao Koehler, Galina Voskoboeva, Karin Knapp and British qualifier Heather Watson, who beat Lucie Hradecka 6-4 6-4.

Spain’s Albert Montanes and Flavio Cipolla of Italy each justified their seedings by reaching the second round of the Estoril Open in Portugal with straight sets wins on Tuesday. Seventh seed Montanes was a 6-2 6-3 winner over Australia’s Matthew Ebden while Cipolla, seeded eight, eased past Argentina’s Diego Junqueira 6-1 6-4 in exactly 80 minutes. Rui Machado and Joao Sousa won all-Portuguese match-ups against Pedro Sousa and Gastao Elias respectively, but Frederico Gil failed to join them as he fell 6-4 6-2 to Germany’s Bjorn Phau. Three Spanish qualifiers also progressed, with Ivan Navarro, Inigo Cervantes and Daniel Munoz-De La Nava overcoming Daniel Gimeno-Traver, Igor Andreev and Javier Marti respectively.

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Three-time grand slam winner Sharapova, the second seed, battled to a 3-6 7-5 6-2 win over Maria Kirilenko in the women’s quarter-finals of the joint WTA and ATP event in California. Sharapova will face Ivanovic, who eased past a stricken Marion Bartoli 6-3 6-4 in a rematch of their 2011 quarter-final. Sharapova had cruised through her first three matches without dropping a set but quickly ran into trouble against Kirilenko, who had won eight of her previous nine three-set matches this year. “I tried to keep my head up today even though I wasn’t playing my best,” said Sharapova, the 2006 champion. “Towards the end, I started to play better and move better.” Sharapova needed three hours and five minutes to dispatch Kirilenko in the first meeting between the two since the opening round of the 2010 Australian Open. Kirilenko is getting a reputation as the WTA Tour’s ironwoman. This was her third straight three-setter and the second time in the tournament she played a match lasting more than three hours. But despite breaking the former world No.1 twice in winning the opening set in 43 minutes, Kirilenko was unable to conquer her more-fancied countrywoman.

Ivanovic was delighted to avenge her semi-final loss last year to Bartoli with a straight-sets victory this time around. “It was a tough match. I served well,” the Serb said. “We both started well but the eighth game of the second set was important. I just tried to stay low and make her run.” Bartoli was trailing 2-1 in the second set when she asked for the doctor to come out onto the court. She was in discomfort for the remainder of the match, bending over and grabbing her stomach between serves. Several players pulled out or retired from matches in Indian Wells complaining of a stomach virus. “When I went on the court, I was very dizzy and it was very hard for me to catch my breath,” Bartoli said. “I started to not feel well since last night. When I woke up this morning, I knew I was not in great shape. But I gave it a try on the court. “The more the match was going on, the worse it was getting for me and I was feeling extremely dizzy on the court and I don’t see very clearly. I got the virus that a lot of players got here.”

Ivanovic has made it to at least the Indian Wells quarter-finals on five occasions, winning the title four years ago. Bartoli’s exit means last year’s winner Caroline Wozniacki and runner-up are out of the women’s draw.

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Ana Ivanovic defeated Francesca Schiavone 6-1, 7-5 Tuesday to advance to the second round of the Dubai Tennis Championships. Ivanovic breezed through the first set, holding her Italian opponent to just one game in 33 minutes. Schiavone made it competitive in the second set, but was no match for the 24-year-old Serb.

Also, fifth-seeded Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland advanced after defeating Aleksandra Wozniak of Canada 6-1, 6-7 (6), 7-5. Radwanska cruised through the first set in 27 minutes, but she needed another 2 hours to win her opening match. After losing the second set on a tiebreaker, Radwanska struggled with her concentration in the third. She rallied from 5-3 down to win 7-5. On Tuesday, two more players joined the list of withdrawals. Dominika Cibulkova of Slovakia retired with a hamstring injury while trailing Iveta Benesova 3-1, and Maria Kirilenko withdrew from a doubles match with Sabine Lisicki against Anabel Medina Garrigues and Alicja Rosolska. Kirilenko has a neck injury but is scheduled to play Ivanovic in the second round on Wednesday, organizers said.

Later Tuesday, sixth-seeded Marion Bartoli of France will meet Shuai Peng of China in her opening match. The winner will play Slovakia’s Daniela Hantuchova in the second round. Hantuchova advanced after defeating Polona Hercog of Slovenia 1-6, 7-5, 7-6 (4). Third-seeded Caroline Wozniacki will open the defense of her title on Wednesday when she meets Simona Halep of Romania. Halep advanced Tuesday after defeating Russia’s Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 6-4, 6-2. Also, Lucie Safarova defeated Petra Martic 6-3, 5-7, 6-3. Safarova will meet U.S. Open champion Samantha Stosur in the second round. Australian Open champion Victoria Azarenka is the top-seeded player in Dubai. The top-ranked Belarusian will meet Julia Goerges of Germany in her opening match on Wednesday.

Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova, French Open winner Li Na and Vera Zvonareva withdrew because of illness or injury on Monday.

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Defending champion Daniela Hantuchova marched into the final of the PTT Pattaya Open in Thailand with a convincing win over qualifier Hsieh Su-wei. The Slovakian third seed took five of her 10 break-point chances to claim a 6-4 6-1 win. In the final she will play Russian fourth seed Maria Kirilenko who came through a three-set battle with Romania’s Sorana Cirstea. Kirilenko won 6-2 5-7 6-4 in a match which featured 10 breaks of serve.

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Defending champion Jarmila Gajdosova of Australia advanced to the quarter-finals of the Guangzhou Open by beating Mandy Minella of Luxembourg 4-6 6-2 6-3 on Wednesday. Top-seeded Maria Kirilenko also advanced, defeating Iryna Bremond of France 6-3 6-1. Zheng Jie, the last Chinese player in the tournament, moved into the next round by beating Noppawan Lertcheewakarn of Thailand 6-3 7-5, while Zhao Yijing of China lost to Tetiana Luzhanska of Ukraine 6-4 2-6 7-5.

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Top seed Maria Kirilenko moved safely into the second round of the Guangzhou International Open in China with a routine win over Ukraine’s Alona Bondarenko. Kirilenko, the world number 28 from Russia, had lost two of her previous three meetings with Bondarenko coming into the match but had the edge on this occasion, winning 6-4 6-2. Kirilenko, seeking her sixth WTA title and fourth on Asian soil, faces Iryna Bremond in the second round after the Frenchwoman defeated Mariya Koryttseva 6-1 6-3.

Second seed Jarmila Gajdosova of Australia is also through to the next round of the hard court event at Tianhe Sports Center after defeating China’s Han Xinyun 6-2 6-1.

Fifth-seeded Bojana Jovanovski of Serbia was a first-round victim, losing 6-3 4-6 7-6 (7/4) to Ukraine’s Tetiana Luzhanska, while Chanelle Scheepers, the seventh seed from South Africa, needed three sets to see off Anastasija Sevastova 7-5 1-6 6-3. France’s Aravane Rezai beat Zhang Shuai 6-2 7-6 (7/2), while Magdalena Rybarikova and Mandy Minella both needed three sets to defeat Jill Craybas and Xu Yifan respectively. There were also wins for Hsieh Su-wei, Chan Yung-Jan, Zhao Yijing and Zarina Diyas.

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Samantha Stosur had to dig deep to finally overcome Maria Kirilenko in an epic encounter. Stosur eventually triumphed 6-2 6-7 (15-17) 6-3 in a match that featured the longest tie-break in a women’s singles match in grand slam history. The 25th seed Kirilenko had fought off five match points and being helped by three correct line call challenges, including two on the same match point. But it was all in vain for Kirilenko as Stosur put the disappointment of failing to close the match out behind her by breaking early in the decider and holding on for victory. In the quarter-finals Stosur will face second seed Vera Zvonareva, who survived what many pundits expected to be a much tougher test against Wimbledon semi-finalist Sabine Lisicki, triumphing 6-2 6-3.

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