Pierce grounded in first round
Agence France-Presse, Tokyo
Hard-hitting former French Open champion Mary Pierce of France crashed out in the first round of the Pan Pacific Open to Silvia Farina-Elia of Italy on Tuesday.
The 30-year-old Farina-Elia, seeded sixth here, defeated the 28-year-old Pierce 3-6, 6-1, 6-0 in 86 minutes.
After taking the first set in style, Pierce began losing the range on her powerful baseline strokes and soon found herself down 0-5 in the second set.
She managed to win the sixth game, but that was all she could manage for the remainder of the match as Farina-Elia reeled off the last seven games in a row.
"Today was just not my day," said Pierce, a wild card entry here. "I played a good first set, but made too many unforced errors in the second and third sets. Silvia played a good, solid match all the way through."
Pierce, winner of the French Open in 2000, was a quarter- finalist at the Pan Pacific Open in 1995, soon after winning her first Grand Slam title at the Australian Open in Melbourne.
"I'm very happy to win this match, because in the past I've always lost to Mary very easily, like 6-1, 6-2," said Farina- Elia, ranked 15th against Pierce's 50th.
"I'd never beaten her before, so it was very tough in the beginning as she came out with a lot of confidence, knowing that she'd always won. Even through I lost the first set, I had a lot of chances.
"It was very important for me to hold serve in the first game of the second set after being down 0-40. Then I started to play a bit better, and I was then able to go for my shots.
"I was focused on each point and very determined to win, because she's a former Grand Slam champion, so she's able to come back at any time," added Farina-Elia.
In the second round, Farina-Elia will play Thai ace Tamarine Tanasugarn, who twisted her right ankle while warming up but shrugged off the injury to beat Clarisa Fernandez of Argentina 7- 6 (7/1), 6-2.
"The first couple of games, my ankle gave me a problem, but after that, it was getting better and better. It was gone during the second set," said the 25-year-old Thai.
In other action, French qualifier Stephanie Cohen Aloro, ranked 166th in the world and playing only her fifth WTA event, upset 24th-ranked Tatiana Panova of Russia 6-0, 6-3.
Sydney Olympic silver medalist Elena Dementieva, the eighth seed, safely went through with a 7-5, 6-2 victory over in-form American Meghann Shaughnessy while Katarina Srebotnik of Slovenia beat 1999 finalist Amanda Coetzer of South Africa 6-4, 7-5.
Local hope Ai Sugiyama earned a match against top seed Monica Seles of the United States when she downed Rita Grande of Italy 6-1, 4-6, 6-3.
In Milan, Italy, top seed Jiri Novak crashed out of the Milan Indoor tournament in the first round on Monday when he was swept aside 6-4, 6-3 by fellow Czech Radek Stepanek.
The tournament also lost its second seed on the opening day after Sjeng Schalken of the Netherlands was beaten 6-4, 6-3 by Sweden's Thomas Enqvist.
French seventh seed Nicolas Escude, the only man to take a set off Andre Agassi in Australia, also made an early exit, beaten 6- 4, 1-6, 6-3 by Slovak Dominik Hrbaty.
Finnish number eight seed Jarkko Nieminen, after losing the second set, steadied his nerves to dispatch Swiss Michel Kratochvil 6-4, 3-6, 6-1.