Friday, January 21, 2011

Unseeded Groenefeld and Schnyder upset Spaniards

In 2009, the Spanish team of Nuria Llagostera Vives and Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez won the WTA Championships with victories over both Black and Huber and the Williams sisters. 2010 looked bright, but Martinez Sanchez sustained an injury that kept her off the courts for quite a while. When she returned, nothing was the same. And while the Spaniards were seeded 4th at the Australian Open, they were certainly more vulnerable than in the past, and they were upset in the second round. The unseeded team of Anna-Lena Groenefeld and Patty Schnyder defeated them 6-4, 6-4.

Wimbledon fnalists Elena Vesnina and Vera Zvonareva, seeded 13th, were also defeated, by the team of Chuang Chia-Jung and Hshieh Su-Wei.

Top seeds Gisela Dulko and Flavia Pennetta advanced to the third round, as did 3rd seeds Liezel Huber and Nadia Petrova. Meanwhile, in the first round of mixed doubles, 6th seeds Lisa Raymond and Wesley Moodie were defeated by Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Horia Tecau.