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Patrick Mouratoglou says the changing pace of grass has affected the way the players approach the grasscourt game

Daniela Hantuchova crashes in LA


World No.12 Daniela Hantuchova was dumped out of the East West Bank Classic in round two on Tuesday.

The 25-year-old sixth seed went down 6-2, 6-4 against Belarussian Olga Govortsova.

Daniela Hantuchova is making her back after a foot injury and says theres a lot of hard work to be done.

“I guess it’s going to be a long way back, Daniela Hantuchova said. “I’m struggling to find my rhythm and it was a bad performance.”

There were no problems for the other star on show on day two of the Los Angeles tier 2 event, though.

Third seed Anna Chakvetadze looked confident as she brushed aside Pole Marta Domachowska 6-1, 6-1 in her second round contest.

Canadas Aleksandra Wozniak, who won last weeks Stanford event in California, came back to earth with a bump as she lost 6-1, 6-0 to Italys 10th seed Flavia Pennetta in round one.

“She played solid and was fresh and I didn’t have concentration and felt exhausted, Wozniak said. I was missing energy.”

Another three seeds also came through first round matches on Tuesday Russian Nadia Petrova, Czech Nicole Vaidisova and Slovak Dominika Cibulkova.

Ninth seeded Petrova beat Russian qualifier Alina Jidkova 6-0, 6-4, Vaidisova hit back to beat Japans Ayumi Morita 6-7, 6-3, 6-1 while Cibulkova outgunned Romanian Monica Niculescu 6-4, 6-3.

Off court, the event was hit by the news that Serena Williams has withdrawn from the tournament with a knee injury a day before she was due to open her campaign.

Meanwhile at this weeks other Sony Ericsson WTA event taking place in Portoroz, Slovenia there were wins for the top two seeds Maria Kirilenko and Katarina Srebotnik.

Kirilenko thrashed Croatian qualifier Nika Ozegovic 6-1, 6-1 and Srebotnik crushed another Croat, Sanda Mamic, 6-2, 6-2.

Frenchwoman Camille Pin caused the only upset of the day as she beat sixth seeded Kiwi Marina Erakovic 7-5, 5-7, 6-3.


Tim Farthing, Tennishead Editorial Director & Owner, has been a huge tennis fan his whole life. He's a tennis journalist and entrepreneur as well as playing tennis to a national standard. He also helps manage his local club and volunteers for his local tennis organisation. He's a specialist in content about the administration of professional tennis and tennis coaching for all levels.