Acura Classic: Hingis, Sharapova advance

Hingis, seeded eighth and handed a first-round bye, took 66 minutes to win her first match in Carlsbad since 2001. She won the tournament in 1997 and 1999, and had never lost before the quarterfinals in six previous appearances.

Meeting Tu for the first time in 11 years, Hingis won 20 of 26 points off her second serve, and saved all six break points she faced in her first match since losing in the third round at Wimbledon.

Maria Sharapova, ranked No. 4, was pushed hard early before she rebounded to win 10 of the final 11 games in a 6-4, 6-1 second-round victory over fellow Russian Vasilisa Bardina. While seventh-seeded Nicole Vaidisova of the Czech Republic topped Virginia Ruano Pascual of Spain 6-1, 6-0, the AP reports.

Sharapova, who received a first-round bye as the second seed, trailed 4-2 in the first set before she won 14 of the next 19 points to take the first set. Bardina, who played aggressively in the first set, started making numerous unforced errors and held her serve just once in the second set.

First-round winners included resurgent Russian Vera Zvonareva, who beat last year's finalist Ai Sugiyama 6-1, 7-5, 11th-seeded Daniela Hantuchova of Slovakia, and No. 15 Katarina Srebotnik of Slovenia.

Former top-10 player Zvonareva won the Birmingham title in June and at Cincinnati two weekends ago, both times unseeded. In six weeks she's dropped her ranking from No. 78 to 36.

Sugiyama broke Zvonareva her only time when the Russian served for the match at 5-4, but the Japanese star failed to win a point on serve in the next game, and Zvonareva took her second chance to serve out. Sugiyama lost her opening match for the eighth time in 16 tournaments this year.

Hantuchova was dominating Kveta Peschke 6-1, 4-0 when the Czech retired with a right thigh strain, having failed to win a single point off her second serve. Srebotnik outserved Marion Bartoli of France 6-3, 6-0.

American qualifier Amy Frazier came back from 5-3 down in the second set to beat French teenager Tatiana Golovin 6-3, 7-6, winning the tiebreak 9-7 from 5-1 down and saving three set points.

Argentina's Gisela Dulko broke Israel's Shahar Peer twice in the last three games to win 2-6, 6-3, 6-3 while her next opponent, fifth-seeded Patty Schnyder, watched from the stands.

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