In Brief | Tennis Jan. 9

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HOBART, Australia — American qualifier Lauren Davis beat second-seeded Sorana Cirstea of Romania 6-1, 6-3 in a rain-interrupted, second-round match Tuesday at the Hobart International.

Cirstea eliminated
by American
qualifier in Hobart

HOBART, Australia — American qualifier Lauren Davis beat second-seeded Sorana Cirstea of Romania 6-1, 6-3 in a rain-interrupted, second-round match Tuesday at the Hobart International.

Cirstea’s elimination followed that of top-seeded Hsieh Su-wei on Monday and leaves No. 3 Klara Zakopalova as the highest-seeded player remaining at the Domain Tennis Centre. On Tuesday, the Czech advanced with a 6-4, 6-3 first-round win over Timea Babos of Hungary.

Elena Vesnina of Russia beat fourth-seeded Yaroslava Shvedova of Kazakhstan 4-6, 6-2, 6-1 in a second-round match.

Eighth-seeded Sloane Stephens of the United States, who lost to Serena Williams in the quarterfinals of the Brisbane International, advanced to the last eight with a 6-4, 6-0 win over Simona Halep of Romania.

Ninth-seeded Mona Barthel of Germany also advanced to the quarterfinals, defeating Chanelle Scheepers of South Africa 7-6 (3), 7-5.

Qualifier Jones upsets Melzer in Auckland

AUCKLAND, New Zealand — Australian qualifier Greg Jones upset sixth-seeded Jurgen Melzer of Austria 7-6 (7), 6-2 Tuesday in the first round of the Heineken Open for his first ATP victory.

Another qualifier to win was Igor Sijsling, who beat Robin Haase 3-6, 6-3, 7-5 in an all-Dutch match.

In other first-round matches, Lukas Lacko of Slovakia beat Paolo Lorenzi of Italy, 6-3, 6-3, and Santiago Giraldo of Colombia swept past Go Soeda of Japan 6-1, 6-0.

Alejandro Falla of Colombia was leading Grega Zemlja 6-4, 3-1 when the Slovak retired with an unspecified injury, while Canadian qualifier Jesse Levine beat New Zealand wild card Dan King-Turner 6-2, 6-2.

Gael Monfils rallied past Benjamin Becker of Germany 6-7 (2), 6-3, 6-4. The Frenchman, ranked 99th, entered the main draw on a wild card and looked in good form ahead of the Australian Open, which starts Jan. 14.

Yen-hsun Lu of Taiwan beat Benoit Paire 6-3, 2-6, 6-2 with the Frenchman appearing to struggle with a hamstring injury.

Radwanska
advances in Sydney

SYDNEY — Top-seeded Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland extended her unbeaten start to the season to six matches with a 6-4, 6-3 win over 42-year-old Kimiko Date-Krumm on Tuesday at the Sydney International.

In other women’s matches, third-seeded Sara Errani of Italy and fourth-seeded Li Na of China easily advanced to the quarterfinals. Errani beat Russia’s Maria Kirilenko 6-1, 6-1, while Li, who was pushed to two sets in beating American Christina McHale in the first round Monday, dominated Ayumi Morita of Japan 6-1, 6-0.

In first-round men’s play, sixth-seeded Radek Stepanek of Czech Republic defeated Guillermo Garcia-Lopez of Spain 6-2, 6-3, and Spain’s Feliciano Lopez beat seventh-seeded Jeremy Chardy of France 6-7 (2), 7-5, 6-3.

By wire sources