Asia-Pacific News
Dementieva avoids upset curse in Auckland
Jan 6, 2009, 8:06 GMT
Auckland - Olympic champion Elena Dementieva had to fight to stop a potential spoiler, erasing an early 5-1 lead in favour of Taiwan's Chan Yung-Jan Chan to post a 7-5, 6-3 victory on Tuesday at the ASB Classic.
Dementieva called her great escape 'a tough match.'
'She was on fire at the beginning and put a lot of pressure on me. It took me a while to get into the match,' she said of her opponent.
The Russian world number four was joined as a straight-sets winner by second seed Caroline Wozniacki as the Dane crushed Italian qualifier Alberta Brianti 6-1, 6-0.
Two more seeded players advanced to the second round as did New Zealand's Marina Erakovic, who won her opener over Nuria Llagostera Vives of Spain 7-5, 6-4 to next face Dementieva.
Seventh seeded Russian Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova put out German Kristina Barrois 6-3, 6-1 while Spanish number eight Carla Suárez Navarro stopped French veteran Nathalie Dechy 6-4, 6-0.
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