Serena stays hot in Cincy, Sharapova advances
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Red-hot Serena Williams posted an opening-round win Tuesday at the $2.05 million Western & Southern Open, a U.S. Open Series event, while Maria Sharapova easily advanced to the third round.
The former world No. 1 Williams notched her 12th straight match victory with a 6-3, 7-6 (7-5) decision against Czech Lucie Hradecka on the hardcourts at the Lindner Family Tennis Center. Williams fired seven aces in the 1-hour, 39- minute win.
The 13-time Grand Slam champion Williams is seeking her third title in three events, having titled in Toronto last week and Stanford last month.
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Next up for the American great will be Aussie Samantha Stosur, who lost to Williams in this past Sunday's finale in Toronto.
The fourth-seeded Sharapova needed just 71 minutes to defeat Anastasia Rodionova, 6-1, 6-3. Sharapova was last year's Cincy runner-up to Kim Clijsters.
Additionally, fifth-seeded Li Na moved into the third round with a 6-3, 6-4 handling of Czech Lucie Safarova. The Chinese Li captured this year's French Open title and was January's runner-up to Clijsters at the Australian Open.
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In other second-round action, sixth-seeded Czech Petra Kvitova moved on with a 7-6 (7-3), 6-3 defeat of South African Chanelle Scheepers. Kvitova upset Sharapova in last month's Wimbledon final.
Eighth-seeded Marion Bartoli of France also reached the third round with a 6-1, 6-2 rout of the Ukraine's Alona Bondarenko.
Last week's Toronto runner-up to Williams, the 10th-seeded Stosur, reached the second round this week with a 6-3, 6-1 pasting of Greek qualifier Eleni Daniilidou.
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In other opening-round play involving seeds, Italian Flavia Pennetta dismissed No. 12 Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova of Russia 2-6, 6-3, 6-3, No. 13 Jelena Jankovic whipped Czech Iveta Benesova 6-0, 6-3, No. 16 Peng Shuai of China got past Argentine Gisela Dulko 6-3, 4-6, 6-4, and No. 17 Yanina Wickmayer of Belgium decked Serbian qualifier Bojana Jovanovski 6-3, 6-4. The former world No. 1 and former U.S. Open runner-up Jankovic was the Cincy champion two years ago.
Additional opening-round wins came for Russians Nadia Petrova and Maria Kirilenko.
This week's top seeds are world No. 1 Caroline Wozniacki and 2010 U.S. Open runner-up Vera Zvonareva.
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The 2011 Cincinnati champion will collect $360,000.