Serena rescues family honor

Serena rescues family honor Dementievastuns Venus
DOHA – Serena WilliamsSerena Williams’s dream of snatching back the world No. 1 spot stayed alive Tuesday as sister Venus wilted in the heat and humidity of the WTA Championships.
Serena gained revenge over French Open conqueror Svetlana KuznetsovaSvetlana Kuznetsova, winning her opening group match at the 4.55 million dollar tournament 7-6 (8-6), 7-5 in an error-plagued encounter.
The American, the champion in 2001, did it the hard way against the Russian, saving two set points in the first set tie-breaker and coming back from a 1-3 deficit in the second.
The win helped Serena strike the first blow against Dinara SafinaDinara Safina who controversially deposed her as world No. 1 Monday. The American second seed needs to out-perform the Russian this week to regain the year-end top spot.
“I had chances in the tie-break and my mind was still in the first set at the start of the second,” said Serena, who needed an ankle injury taped at the end of the first set and committed 32 unforced errors.
Not that many people would have noticed.
By the time the match ended shortly before midnight, only a few hundred spectators remained in the 7,000-capacity Khalifa Complex arena.
Venus, the defending champion, wilted as feisty Russian Elena DementievaElena Dementieva staged a remarkable comeback to win 6-3, 6-7 (6-8), 6-2 – a result that adds extra spice to the sisters’ group clash Wednesday.
Another defeat would end Venus’s chances of making it out of the round-robin stage.
Venus had led 6-3, 3-1 before Dementieva recovered to record only her third win in 12 meetings with the great American, and first since 2004.
Former world No. 1 Jelena JankovicJelena Jankovic went down 6-2, 6-3 to Belarussian sixth seed Victoria AzarenkaVictoria Azarenka, who is making her tournament debut.
Safina, who lost all three matches she played on her debut here in 2008, opens her campaign Wednesday against Jankovic.
The eight players are split into two round-robin groups with the top two in each making Saturday’s semifinals with a 1.5 million-dollar cheque awaiting Sunday’s winner.

Tsonga in 2nd round
Top-seeded Jo-Wilfried Tsonga served 14 aces and needed two tiebreakers to beat Kevin Kim of the United States 7-6 (5), 7-6 (5) in the first round of the Lyon Grand Prix Tuesday.
Third-seeded Ivan LjubicicIvan Ljubicic of Croatia also progressed after beating Martin Vassallo Arguello of Argentina 6-3, 6-4.
Seventh-seeded Benjamin BeckerBenjamin Becker of Germany beat Paolo Lorenzi of Italy 6-2, 6-2, while No. 8 Albert Montanes of Spain topped Fabrice SantoroFabrice Santoro 6-4, 6-4. The 36-year-old Frenchman is playing his final season on the ATP circuit.
Also, David Guez of France beat Rajeev RamRajeev Ram of the United States 6-2, 6-4, and Marc GicquelMarc Gicquel downed Jerome Haehnel 6-1, 6-4 in an all-French match.
Michael LlodraMichael Llodra of France defeated Lamine Ouahab of Algeria 6-1, 6-2, and Kevin Anderson of South Africa beat Simon Greul of Germany 6-4, 4-6, 7-6 (3).

Stepanek, Kohlschreiber thru
Radek Stepanek began his quest for a third ATP title this year by defeating Lukasz Kubot of Poland 6-4, 6-1 in the opening round of the Bank Austria Tennis Trophy Tuesday.
Fourth-seeded Philipp Kohlschreiber beat qualifier Dieter Kindlmann 6-1, 6-3 in an all-German match.
Sixth-seeded Feliciano Lopez, the 2004 champion, defeated Austrian wild card Andreas Haider-Maurer 6-4, 6-4.
No. 7 Jurgen Melzer, Austria’s hope, beat Marco Chiudinelli of Switzerland 7-6 (4), 7-6 (10).
Michael Berrer topped Steve Darcis of Belgium 6-3, 6-2.

Chardy, Andreev prevail
Seeded players Jeremy Chardy of France, Igor Andreev of Russia and Horacio Zeballos of Argentina won their opening matches at the St. Petersburg Open in straight sets Tuesday.
Chardy beat Romanian qualifier Petru-Alexandru Luncanu 6-2, 6-2, No. 5 Andreev defeated Potito Starace of Italy 6-4, 6-2 and No. 8 Zeballos ousted Kazakh qualifier Yuri Schukin 7-6 (9), 6-3. – Agencies