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by Priya Prasad Tournament organisers had once again reason to regret scheduling the best matches for last, as play ran nearly to midnight, leaving less than ten spectators falling asleep in the stands. Qualifier Cho Yoon-Jeong made short work of Irina Selyutina, playing steadily to take the match 6-2 6-4. Silvia Farina-Elia also managed to move into the second round despite having a tougher match against Emilie Loit. Silvia had trouble taking control of the match against the more aggressive play of the French lefty, but managed to get through 6-2 4-6 6-3 anyway. Always steady, the Milanese will come through against Cho for a place in the quarterfinals. The pace picked up with seventh seed Daja Bedanova finding herself in deep trouble against Joanette Kruger, actually saving one match point at 3-6 2-5 down to eventually win 3-6 7-5 6-2. The Czech simply had trouble getting herself started for the year, and had not had the benefit her opponent had of a long first-round match. Taking her cue from the near upset, Slovakian Daniela Hantuchova took to court against second seed Justine Henin. Henin appeared to be her calm and collected self, ready to put her new weapon to the test -- sparked off by her loss against Venus Williams in the final of Wimbledon, the Belgian had started on a strength training program in the past weeks to give her more of a fair chance against the power players. The Slovak's innocent angelic face belies a ruthless game and she came out full speed ahead, serving beautifully and throwing all caution to the wind. Blasting serves that kept Justine guessing and hitting full swinging volleys from the middle of the court, Daniela made the Belgian look like the underdog instead. Justine had made no assumptions coming into the match, but certainly had not expected the shelling she was receiving, and let the pressure of a repeat performance from last year get to her. The first set went to Daniela 6-1, a good reflection of just how well she was playing, and it would have been more than reasonable to believe that the tournament was about to lose its defending champion in her first match. Justine spent the changeover deciding to focus on her game instead of letting the panic get to her; she focused her energy on just winning the match instead of thinking about the multitude of reasons for her to come through. The slightly differed service motion had let her down a couple of times, but she stuck with it and took the bad with the good. Daniela continued to put the pressure on, but now had the burden of a lead on her back. A couple of breathtaking passes from Justine and a handful of missed opportunities from Daniela turned the match around, and the Slovak struggled to recover from a high swinging forehand dumped into the net from halfway inside the service line. Justine had to work hard for her points, but took 11 games in a row before Daniela finally broke the streak, smacking four huge serves to hold at love. To be fair, line calls up to this point had been more than questionable, and the Slovak had every reason to lose her cool but did little more than pause for a couple of seconds after each dodgy point, lips pressed into a thin straight line in controlled rage. Once again, the match turned around, and her serves finally landing in instead of just past the service line as they had in the last set and a half, the Slovak found her second wind. Hitting crisp clean shots well out of Justine's reach, she fought back with a vengeance, actually taking three games in a row despite coming close to losing it all. Panic set in again in the Belgian, the threat of actually losing the match after such a hot streak becoming very real, and the adrenaline flowing through her veins materialized in a couple of booming serves. A couple of mishits off Daniela's racquet left her facing two match points, but absolutely gutsy play and a huge winner in the corner of the court saved her the first. Stepping in to receive serve on the next point, she took a huge swing and went for a down-the-line forehand service return winner, but the ball landed just beyond the service line, and it was a second or two before anyone in attendance realized that the match was over and the Belgian had scraped through by the skin of her nose. Justine certainly had reason to be elated with her win, especially with the way she had handled herself coming out of the first set, and came away buzzing with confidence. While some players might shudder at having such a tough first match, the 19-year-old going on 30 understood the benefits of coming through a tight situation, and held on to the belief that if she could get through this, she can certainly take on Venus in the final for a repeat performance here in the Gold Coast. Daniela Hantuchova, on the other hand, will be lying awake for the next few nights thinking about what could have been, but the youngster will certainly have many more opportunities ahead of her. Look for the Wimbledon mixed-doubles champion to win her first career WTA singles title this year. Next up on court were fourth seed Meghann Shaughnessy and Nadia Petrova in a match that was predictably power-orientated and in don't-blink-or-you'll-miss-it fashion. Meghann showed more versatility and opted to play a more all-court game than engage in a muscle contest with the Russian, but found it disheartening to see the balls whiz past her time after time. Nadia had her serve well under control, which made her service games go by fast enough, but other than that, it was very much hit-and-miss. The errors that were coming off her racquet suggested an injury, possibly in the shoulder, of some sort, but the Russian stuck in there and took the match 6-4 4-6 6-3, with the final set ending in a very convincing fashion. Former champion Ai Sugiyama took to the court next against another Russian, Anastasia Myskina, and both players were glad to be finally seeing some action. Spectators were still in attendance despite the late hour, although neither player is very dependant on crowd motivation to get them going. Anastasia, or Nastya as her friends call her, started strong, hitting the ball confidently and knowing that her opponent had the ability not only to send the balls back, but to send them back with strategic purpose. Games started out on serve, Nastya playing well, but her shaky serve got her into trouble at 2-all, and she soon found herself trailing 2-4. She got her serve under control again and took advantage of some shaky serving from Ai this time to get the break back. Both players worked hard to take the first set, but with the way the Russian was playing, it wasn't long before the line calls started to get to her, and despite her small protests, the line judges failed to be intimidated. When an extremely obvious call left her struggling to hold serve at 5-all, she took it up with the umpire, who couldn't overrule on a far line and left the Russian's face glowing red with frustration. Her game fell apart, and the Japanese quickly took the first set 7-5. The theme carried into the second set, and Nastya soon resigned herself to having line calls go against her and stopped questioning them, although her facial expression belied her facede. The frustration also showed in her game, which quite decidedly had fallen apart. Some unforced errors were just shocking, and after the closely contested first set, the second set was a letdown. With her 7-5 6-3 win, Ai set up her eight meeting against Venus Williams, and will look to keep her quarterfinal record here at the Gold coast unblemished. At 10 in the evening, Tina Pisnik and Elena Likhovtseva finally made it on court. Apart from Elena's husband, Tina's coach, and a couple of players who hadn't either gone to sleep or headed out to party to make up for a disappointing New Year's Eve, stopped by from the hotel (the Royal Pines Resort is a complete facility for the players and apart from entertainment, they have no need to leave the structure) for a couple of games. There were about four people half asleep as well as three people definitely fast asleep in the stands. Tina won the toss and opted to serve. Serving well, she got a 2-0 lead, but promptly had her serve broken (thanks to Elena taking the ball early and taking the early offensive) to even up the match again at 2-all, but got the break again to take a 4-2 lead. Elena's usually steady groundstrokes were a little errant, which was surprising considering the lack of pace on Tina's shots. With the same crew having been on court for a while now, the line calls started becoming questionable, and Tina took up one particularly bad call with the umpire before losing serve yet again. Her goal always to focus on her own game, she kept her head straight, and kept the attack on to take three games in a row for the first personality across the net. Annoyed but still under control, Tina waited patiently, and used her emotion to put a little more sting in her forehand instead of just top-spinning it across the net, and at 5-3, held two match points. She lost the first one on a loose shot, and lost the second when Elena put the attack on, finishing the point with a huge winner from the net. Continuing the aggressive play, Elena took the game and threatened to turn the match around. She led 15-0, 15-all, and then 30-15 when she got a passing shot past an set. Elena continued to have trouble keeping her backhand under control, while her opponent was struggling as usual with her forehand, but the serves made the difference, and Elena once again found herself down a break at 1-2. She started to take her time between points, breaking the Slovenian's rhythm and particularly aggravating the extremely volatile increasingly alarmed Pisnik, even holding break point at 40-30, but couldn't break the resolve of her opponent, and lost three points in a row to give the Slovenian her second big upset in a row. Reminiscent of her first match, Tina was on the phone as soon as she sat down on her chair to inform her mother of her win. One step closer to proving that her capability to keep her concentration in her previous match was no fluke, the future looks increasingly bright for the top Slovenian talent. With her performance here, it is likely that she will reach her highest ranking at around 50, and it looks imminent that bar injury, she will crack the top 30 by the end of the year. She next faces a quarterfinal showdown against former junior rival Daja Bedanova, whose performance earlier today might just hold another big upset in store for the Slovenian. Singles Main Draw Round 1:
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