Tennis: A cruise for top seeds - bar one

It was business as usual for top gun Amy Frazier, but day one of the Auckland international women's event claimed one victim from the seeds.

Seventh-seeded Venezuelan Maria Vento-Kabchi is out of the ASB Classic, beaten 6-4, 6-4 by Slovakian Martina Sucha.

However, Frazier and fifth seed Marion Bartoli of France had comfortable workouts as a prelude to tougher outings to come.

World No 26 Frazier was too consistent for up-and-down fellow American Laura Granville 6-3, 6-3, and Bartoli, despite occasionally looking as if she was coming to the end of a marathon between points, whipped American Abigail Spears 6-0, 6-1.

Russian wildcard Lina Krasnoroutskaya gave tournament organisers an early thank-you with a 7-6 (7-5), 6-1 win over Aniko Kapros, a Hungarian who ran hard but possessed a marshmallow serve.

The Hungarian served for the first set but lost it, then led the tiebreak 4-2 but squandered that advantage in the face of some rasping ground strokes from 20-year-old Krasnoroutskaya.

The Russian, at No 141, 56 ranking places lower than Kapros, ran away with the second set and now faces either eighth-seeded compatriot Alina Jidkova or Slovenia's Katarina Srebotnik in the round of 16.

The object of the exercise for the leading players yesterday was to get the year's first competitive match out of the way. "In the first match everyone is a little anxious to see how they are going to feel," Frazier said. "I was nervous."

It didn't show as she produced metronomic precision, with her deep shots off either hand finding their target. Granville is a practice partner and a mate, but business is business.

"We go out and try our hardest. Would I rather play someone I don't know? Sure," Frazier added.

World No 41 Bartoli flew through her first set in 20 minutes and it took until the 11th game for Spears to get on the board.

"It was a pretty good match today, a good start for me," said Bartoli, who is a rarity in that she plays doublehanded on both wings.

The 20-year-old wants to get more aggression into her game, but reckoned she was not far off her best yesterday, quaintly adding that "my backhand sometimes goes a bit far".

In her next game tomorrow she might be facing former champion Meilen Tu. Tu was beaten in the final qualifying round yesterday, but benefited as the lucky loser when an extra spot opened up due to the withdrawal through injury of Hungarian Petra Mandula.

As the highest ranked of the four losers, 2001 champion Tu got the nod and meets American Jill Craybas today.

Yesterday's action was an entree to a big day today when five seeds step on court, and New Zealand teenage hope Marina Erakovic makes her opening singles bow on the WTA circuit.

Erakovic is up against Canadian qualifier Marie-Eve Pelletier on centre court, straight after second seed Jelena Jankovic of Serbia.

Jankovic has been feeling the effects of a cold since arriving in Auckland and her opponent today, Claudine Schaul of Luxembourg, beat her in one of their two meetings last year.

It is Schaul's third visit to Auckland, but her first time in the main draw. She won her maiden WTA title last year, beating four seeds, including - in the final - world No 1 Lindsay Davenport to pocket the Strasbourg title in May.

"That week gave me a lot more confidence," world No 61 Schaul said. "Before that, when I was playing that type of player I knew I could compete but always some little thing was missing."

Jankovic, the rapid riser on the WTA rankings last year, jumping from No 82 to a year-end 28, might need to be on her mettle today.

Defending champion Eleni Daniilidou is the big attraction of the first night session of the Classic today, up against Italian Mara Santangelo.

Those to advance through qualifying, besides Pelletier and Tu, are Japan's Yuka Yoshida, who beat teenage American Jessica Kirkland in straight sets, Slovakian Janette Husarova and Israeli Shahar Peer .

The first round of doubles began yesterday on the back courts. As if to showcase the United Nations feel of the event, at one point the two courts were occupied by a Croatian, a Spaniard, a Russian, a Ukrainian, an Italian, an American, a Japanese and a Slovenian.

* The players have spearheaded a collection for tsunami relief. They came up with the idea and began the fund out of their own pockets and will move among the spectators seeking gold-coin donations tonight between 6.30 and 7pm.

Auckland Tennis and the Women's Tennis Association support the initiative. All the proceeds from Thursday night's Lobbo prize draw during the Deutz Charity Auction will go to a relief fund.

Today's schedule

* All courts start 11am

Court one: 4-S. Asagoe (Japan) v T. Perebiynis (Ukraine), followed by C. Schaul (Luxembourg) v 2-J. Jankovic (Serbia), followed by M. Erakovic (NZ) v M-E. Pelletier (Canada), followed by 8-A. Jidkova (Russia) v K. Srebotnik (Slovenia), followed by, but not before 7pm, M. Santangelo (Italy) v 3-E. Daniilidou (Greece), followed by L. Baker (NZ)/F. Lubiani (Italy) v 2-J. Craybas/C. Morariu (US).

Court four: J. Husarova (Slovakia) v 8-K. Brandi (Puerto Rico), followed by L. Safarova (Czech Republic) v Y. Yoshida (Japan), followed by Craybas v M. Tu (US), followed by Su-Wei Hsieh (Taipei)/Yoshida v 4-Husarova/L. Krasnoroutskaya (Russia), followed by Erakovic/C. Scheepers (South Africa) v T. Ashley/L. Granville (US).

Court six: A. Kremer (Luxembourg) v N. Llagostera Vives (Spain), followed by A. Morigami (Japan) v S. Peer (Israel), followed by Chia-Jung Chuang (Taipei)/R. Fujiwara (Japan) v M. Muller/J. Woehr (Germany), followed by A. Spears (US)/Tu v Schaul/A. Vanc (Romania).