At 48, Martina Navratilova still starts as the favourite, whoever she teams with.
On Wednesday, she lived up to expectations. Along with Germany's Anna-Lena Groenefeld, she crushed the Japanese pair of Shiho Hisamatsu and Remi Tezuka 6-2, 6-1 in the first round of the doubles at the WTA Hyderabad Open.
Groenefeld, who is teaming with Navratilova for the first time, was ecstatic after the match.
"It was a lot of fun. It was the first time we were playing together. It was obviously a great opportunity for me to play the match with Martina," the 20-year-old said.
Groenefeld was also impressed by the support the audience, which had dwindled in numbers after Sania Mirza beat China's Zie Zheng, gave them.
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The first seeds hardly gave any chance to Hisamatsu and Tezuka. Though the Japanese girls raised their game in the second set, Groenefeld's enthusiasm and Navratilova's agility proved too much to handle.
As the contest started to reel towards the inevitable, Navratilova kept the audience interested with a couple of acrobatic shots.
"6-2, 6-1, I would like more matches like that," said Navratilova,
"The match was a lot closer than the scores suggest. It could've gone either way but it was a question of a couple of points here and there. But, basically, we didn't give them too many chances; they had to earn their opportunities."
Navratilova, a winner of 58 Grand Slam titles, said the facilities at the ground are "fantastic".
"I will definitely recommend it to the other players. It is a very intimate stadium, but large enough. The people are a little excitable and react differently to points, so it's a unique experience playing here," she added.
In the singles, Tian Tian Sun of China caused an upset on day three of the Open when she sent the sixth seed Tamarine Tanasugarn packing in the second round.
Sun, one of the rising players in China, annihilated the experienced Thai 6-2, 6-1 in just 67 minutes.
Mara Santangelo, who had created a ripple by beating Jelena Dokic on Tuesday, lost in a marathon match against Russia's Maria Kirilenko.
After coming back from a set down, Santangelo battled it out to the tie-break in the deciding set. But the 18-year-old held her nerve to win it 7-4.
Kirilenko entered the quarter-finals with a 6-3, 3-6, 7-6(4) victory.
Also making it to the last eight was Ukraine's Alyona Bondarenko.
In the first match of the day, the ninth seed overcame stiff resistance from Melinda Czink to win 6-3, 7-6 (2), 6-4. Bondarenko thus made it to her second straight quarter-final.
She was beaten by Groenefeld in the third stage of the Volvo Open in Pattaya.
"I think we both played very well but I was luckier than her," said Bondarenko after the match.
Results:
Singles (second round): Alyona Bondarenko beat Melinda Czink 6-3, 7-6 (2), 6-4; Tzipora Obziler beat Evie Dominikovic 6-3, 6-2; Tian Tian Sun beat Tamarine Tanasugarn 6-2, 6-1; Anna-Lena Groenefeld beat Jarmila Gajdosova 6-3, 6-2; Sania Mriza beat Jie Zheng 6-1, 2-6, 6-3, Marie-Eve Pelletier beat Shahar Peer 6-4, 6-3; Maria Kirilenko beat Mara Santangelo 6-3, 3-6, 7-6 (4), Na Li beat Ma Emilia Salerni 6-2, 7-5.
Doubles (first round): Anna-Lena Groenefeld/ Martina Navratilova beat Shiho Hisamatsu/ Remi Tezuka 6-2, 6-1; Alyona Bondarenko/ Katerina Bondarenko 6-0, 6-4.
