Kournikova Advances In Tokyo

By CBSNews.com staff CBSNews.com staff

February 2, 1999 / 7:43 PM EST / CBS Sportsline

Russian Anna Kournikova, still battling a serving problem that affected her at the Australian Open, beat Germany's Anke Huber 7-6(7-4),6-0 in the first round of the Pan Pacific Open on Tuesday.

Kournikova, the sixth seed, opened with a pair of double faults in her first two service games in a set where both players managed to win just one service game each.

"I think she (Huber) was having as much trouble as I did," Kournikova said.

Huber let Kournikova off the hook at several stages of the first set with a string of unforced errors. None was more costly than the double fault the German served at 4-4 in the tie-break.

The Russian, ranked 12th in the world, improved her serve in the second set and cruised to an easy victory. Kournikova said she had spent a lot of the first set getting used to the lighting and the fast surface in Tokyo.

Seventh seed Amanda Coetzer of South Africa had a much easier time in her first round victory over Magui Serna of Spain which she won 6-2,6-1. Coetzer will face Els Callens of Belgium in the second round.

Callens won 6-3,6-1 against American Kimberly Po.

Ai Sugiyama of Japan eased past Shi-ting Wang of Taiwan 6-2 6-3 to set up a second round showdown with No. 2 seed Martina Hingis of Switzerland, the newly-crowned Australian Open champion.

Top seed Lindsay Davenport of the U.S., along with Hingis, third seed Jana Novotna of the Czech Republic and Monica Seles of the U.S., had first-round byes.