Azarenka cruises; Mattek-Sands stuns Li at French Open
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Former world No. 1 Victoria Azarenka was an easy second-round winner, while American Bethanie Mattek-Sands stunned former champion Li Na in Thursday's action at the French Open.
The third-seeded Azarenka handled young German Annika Beck 6-4, 6-3 on Court Lenglen. The shrieking Belarusian star is the reigning Australian Open champion and was last year's U.S. Open runner-up.
Meanwhile, the oft-injured Minnesota native Mattek-Sands recorded the biggest win of her career by dousing the sixth-seeded Li in 5-7, 6-3, 6-2 fashion in 2 hours, 16 minutes on Court 1 at Stade Roland Garros.
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The 67th-ranked Mattek-Sands won seven straight games at one point to grab a commanding 5-0 lead in the final set on another wet, chilly day in Paris.
Li refused to make any excuses after the loss.
"I know for sure that I don't normally lose seven games in a row," she said. "It was very tough conditions, coming back to the court three times. But for both players it was the same.
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"I should find out what happened and I'll talk to myself, my team to see what happened."
The 28-year-old Mattek-Sands posted the fourth top-10 win of her career and her second of 2013. She upset 2012 French Open runner-up Sara Errani on red clay in Stuttgart last month.
Li was this year's Aussie Open runner-up to Azarenka and captured the lone Grand Slam title of her career at the 2011 French Open.
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Seventh-seeded former Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova improved to 7-1 in her last two trips to the French with a 6-4, 6-3 victory over last week's Brussels runner-up Peng Shuai of China, while ninth-seeded former Roland Garros finalist Sam Stosur reached the third round with a 6-4, 6-3 handling of France's Kristina Mladenovic. The former U.S. Open champion Stosur was the runner-up here three years ago.
Sloane Stephens, seeded 17th at this fortnight, improved to 7-1 in Grand Slam action this year with a workmanlike 6-1, 6-3 spanking of fellow American Vania King, while 18th-seeded former world No. 1 Jelena Jankovic of Serbia drubbed Spaniard Garbine Muguruza 6-3, 6-0 to reach the round of 32.
In other action involving seeds, New Zealand's Marina Erakovic upended No. 16 Dominika Cibulkova of the Slovak Republic 6-2, 2-6, 6-4 and Argentine Paula Ormaechea took out No. 27 Yaroslava Shvedova of Kazakhstan 6-4, 7-6 (8-6). Ormaechea will face Mattek-Sands in an unlikely third-rounder on Saturday.
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Also, American Jamie Hampton beat Slovak Anna Schmiedlova 7-5, 6-2 and Chinese Zheng Jie leveled American Melanie Oudin 6-3, 6-1.
Rain, as it has a few times already this week, interrupted play for several hours on Day 5.