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by Prip The first day of qualifying saw few surprises at the adidas International in Sydney. Only into the second week of the tour in the new millennium, many players are playing in their first tournament of the year in preparation for the first Grand Slam of the year, the Australian Open in Melbourne. The Aussie crowd had reason to cheer as wildcard Bryanne Stewart got through the first round against Antonella Serra-Zanetti. Jaslyn Hewitt came up short against Dragana Zaric, losing 6-4 3-6 6-1. Dragana continues her efforts to establish herself in WTA tournaments, playing explosive but streaky tennis. Next up for the Yugoslavian girl will be another young hopeful, fourth seed Tina Pisnik, who won her match against Mariana Diaz Oliva comfortably in straight sets. The other 2 local wildcard entrants also fell short. Jenny Belobrajdic lost to fiery Frenchwoman Emilie Loit who had been struggling to get through qualifying all year last year. The Aussie's strong serve gave her a total of 8 aces, but committed too many unforced errors. The experience was definitely on Emilie's side, and she managed to get away with 9 out of 11 break points against her. Playing her usual attacking net game, the Frenchwoman got a 6-3 1-6 6-3 first-round victory. Trudi Musgrave didn't fare as well, losing to heavy-hitting Sandra Nacuk 6-3 6-1 in under an hour. Top seed Nadejda Petrova defeated Lubomira Bacheva 6-3 6-2 despite having a dismal first serve percentage at 48% and committing a total of 10 double-faults and 34 unforced errors in the match. She managed to hang tough when it mattered though, and converted 4 out of 8 break points as opposed to 1 out of 7 for Lubomira. Second seed Silvia Farina is still playing in the Gold Coast and was replaced in the draw by Marie-Eve Pelletier. Third seed Aubrie Rippner went through comfortably against Daniela Hantuchova. Sixth and seventh seeds Alexandra Stevenson and Cristina Torrens Valero both failed to get through their matches. Alexandra lost her match to German Bianka Lamade, only getting 5 games in the whole match. She characteristically managed to serve three aces and 7 double-faults, and had 21 winners against Bianka's 14, but a whopping 38 unforced errors tipped the scale compared to the German's 13. Cristina could have been forgiven a little for losing against Martina Sucha, the Slovakian who had had a good end of last year's season after an unremarkable year.The Slovakian played a relatively clean match, managing to keep her focus well, and came out with a 6-3 6-4 victory. Jelena Kostanic's woes continue, with a straight-set loss to Elena Bovina. The Croat, now suffering with a wrist injury, had trouble keeping the ball in the court against the towering Russian. A lot of her shots were landing just long, driving the youngster to frustration. Her game continues to metamorphosise, and the changes are strikingly obvious. One thing definitely working to her disadvantage though is her footwork. The youngster has been working on gaining strength, and had gained considerable muscle mass in the last year, but is now sporting some unwanted baggage. With rain putting a stop to play towards the end, fifth seed Giulia Casoni will have to wait for her match against Maria Alejandra Vento and Janette Husarova would have an extra day to prepare against German Angelika Bachmann. Alica Canepa (who had replaced eighth seed Emmanuelle Gagliardi) was struggling against Louise Latimer when the heavens poured, and looked somewhat thankful for the break.
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