Three seeds fall in Volvo tennis
BANGKOK (Agencies): Three seeded players fell in first round matches Tuesday in the US$100,000 Volvo Women's Open Tennis Championships in the seaside resort city of Pattaya, 80 miles southeast of Bangkok.
Third seed Yayuk Basuki of Indonesia was defeated by Arendt Nicole of the United States 2-6, 6-3, 6-2, while seventh seed Marianne Werdel of the United States was beaten by Thailand's Tamarine Tanasugarn 1-6, 7-5, 7-5 and No. 8 seed Sandrine of France was defeated at the hands of Belgian Sandra Wasserman 7- 6(7-3), 6-7(5-7), 6-4.
Top seed Sabine Appellmans of Belgium beat Michelle Jaggard- Lai of Australia 6-3, 6-2, while second seed American Patty Pendick defeated South Korean Jeon Mi-ra 6-2, 6-2 and fourth seed Florence Labat of Argentina defeated Andrea Strnadova of Czech Republic 1-6, 6-4, 6-4.
Indonesia's other hope Romana Tedjakusuma was defeated by fifth seed Meredith Mcgrath of the U.S.4-6, 7-6, 3-6 Salem Open
In Hong Kong, persistent rain denied a patient crowd the chance of seeing local idol and top seed Michael Chang in the $320,000 Salem Open Tuesday.
Chang was scheduled to take on America's David Wheaton in the first match of the evening session.
Rain had earlier interrupted second seed Ivan Lendl's first round match against Canadian-Chinese Albert Chang. Lendl led 5-3 with a service break when rain stopped play.
Despite repeated attempts to dry the court over three hours, Lendl's match was eventually postponed until Wednesday.
Organizers then tried to satisfy the spectators by scheduling Chang's match against Wheaton to replace Lendl and Albert Chang but persistent drizzle again frustrated their plans.
A trio of Australians managed to advance to the second round before Lendl's match was cut short.
Sydney-born Jamie Morgan was in impressive form as he demolished Italian qualifier Gianluca Pozzi 6-3, 6-4 on an outside court.
Courier advances
In Nice, former world number one Jim Courier made up for last week's shock first round elimination at the Spanish Open by crushing Russian Yevgueny Kafelnikov in straight sets in his opening match at the Nice Open on Tuesday.
The American, who fell to Spaniard Alex Corretja last Tuesday in Barcelona, cruised to a comfortable 6-3 6-2 victory over unseeded Kafelnikov.
"It was not as easy at it seems but I didn't expect to play so well," said second seed Courier, warming up for next month's French Open. "I still enjoy playing on clay and I don't want to make any plans but I will be hard to beat."
Despite a slow start, top seed Stefan Edberg of Sweden also made it through to the second round by beating Italian Davide Sanguinetti 4-6 6-2 6-4.
Back in action after an ankle injury, France's top player Cedric Pioline, the fourth seed, delighted his home fans by moving past Australian Mark Woodforde 6-4 7-5.