NEW HAVEN // The defending champion Caroline Wozniacki credited boxing for her quick first round victory at the Pilot Pen tournament at the Connecticut Tennis Centre. The second seed needed just 43 minutes to get a bagle score of 6-0, 6-0 against Edina Gallovits of Romania. Wozniacki won 20 of the final 21 points in a 19-minute first set before taking 24 minutes to finish off Gallovits.
The Danish star, ranked No 9 in the world, said her speed and fitness level began improving just after Wimbledon, when friend and super middleweight champion Mikkel Kessler suggested she take up boxing. "You run a lot," she said. "You get strength in your stomach, your back, your shoulders, your arms, all the things that you also need in tennis." So far, Wozniacki has hit mostly bags, sparring just once with her coach - and apologising after she punched him. "He started yelling at me, 'Why are you saying sorry? It's what the game is about. You have to hit me'," she said. "It's just fun to get some aggression out some times."
While Wozniacki barely worked up a sweat, Samantha Stosur needed almost three hours to beat the Frenchwoman Alize Cornet. The Australian ended up losing the first set after nearly 90 minutes, but won 6-7, 6-2, 6-4. "It was a bit of a battle out there," Stosur said. "I got through the second set pretty quick and then started to feel better about things. The third was pretty tight. I was pleased with the way I was able to get out of it and come back from a set down."
Former world No 1 Amelie Mauresmo advanced easily with a 6-1, 6-1 demolition of Ukraine's Alona Bondarenko where France's Marion Bartoli, and Samantha Stosur of Australia joined her. In the men's singles, the top seed Nikolay Davydenko dispatched American Robert Kendrick 7-6, 6-3 to advance to the third round. Davydenko, the Russian world No 8, outlasted big-serving Kendrick in the first set, and cruised through the second to continue his tune-up for the US Open, where he has twice reached the semi-finals.
Second seed Fernando Verdasco of Spain advanced with a straight-set victory and joins Jose Acasuso of Argentina and French veteran Fabrice Santoro in the third round. The eighth seed Mardy Fish was knocked out by fellow American Rajeev Ram 6-3, 6-3, after squandering five break points. * With agencies
