Tennis
Bartoli advances to 2nd round
2012-09-24 09:24
Tokyo - Marion Bartoli of France advanced to
the second round of the Pan Pacific Open on Monday with a 6-1, 6-4 win
over local favorite Kimiko Date-Krumm, who had to deal with the
distraction of a rowdy fan.
After dominating the first set, the
ninth-seeded Bartoli faced a tougher challenge from Date-Krumm, who came
back from a 3-1 deficit in the second set.
"Playing her in Japan
is a tough challenge," Bartoli said. "I expected her to fight to the
end. I knew she would make a comeback in the second set and she did but
that forced me to stay focused."
Date-Krumm, who turns 42 on
Thursday, closed the gap to 5-4 but was undone by two unforced errors in
the last game when she was forced to contend with a loud intoxicated
supporter.
"I heard it and found out after the match there was a
drunken fan," Date-Krumm said. "Maybe he was cheering for me but it was
distracting and broke my concentration on some big points. It's too bad
something like that can happen."
Bartoli, who improved to 4-0 in
head-to-head matches against Date-Krumm, said she has a lot of respect
for the 107th-ranked Japanese player.
"I would love to be able to
play at her level at 42," Bartoli said. "I'm 27 and am amazed by her
condition every time she steps on the court."
In other matches,
11th-seeded Ana Ivanovic of Serbia advanced when Andrea Hlavackova of
the Czech Republic was forced to retire with a left thigh injury with
the former top-ranked Serb leading 6-3, 2-0.
Urszula Radwanska of
Poland coasted to a 6-2, 6-4 win over Japan's Kurumi Nara, while
17th-seeded Nadia Petrova of Russia downed China's Peng Shuai 6-1, 6-4.