BRISBANE — Serena Williams did a quick little dance behind the baseline to remind herself to move her feet. After a complete air swing at the net in the second set, she smiled ruefully and drew in some long, deep breaths. She netted a service return on her first match point. Top-ranked Serena's first competitive match of the season, on New Year's Eve, was by no means perfect, but the 6-4, 6-4 win over Andrea Petkovic at the Brisbane International was a decent start against a player who has been ranked as high as No. 9. Serena made 36 unforced errors, including the big miss on Petkovic's floater in the fifth game of the second set, but hit 35 winners and fired 11 aces including one at 196kph to bring up set point in the first. Serena's already into the quarterfinals where she'll meet ninth-seeded Dominika Cibulkova, who overcame 43-year-old Japanese veteran Kimiko Date-Krumm 6-3, 1-6, 6-3. The other featured women's player in Brisbane, third-seeded Maria Sharapova, received a walkover into the quarterfinals when her Australian opponent, 17-year-old qualifier Ashleigh Barty, withdrew with a left thigh injury Tuesday evening. Sharapova and Barty were scheduled to play Wednesday. In another second-round match, fourth-seeded Jelena Jankovic beat Elina Svitolina of Ukraine 6-1, 6-3. On the men's side, Lleyton Hewitt beat Australian qualifier Thanasi Kokkinakis 6-3, 7-5, sixth-seeded Feliciano Lopez of Spain had a 6-4, 6-4 win over Mikhail Kukushkin of Kazakhstan and No. 8 Jeremy Chardy beat fellow Frenchman Adrian Mannarino 7-6 (4) 7-5. Italy stays alive in Hopman Cup At the Hopman Cup in Perth, Flavia Pennetta and Andreas Seppi beat Samantha Stosur and Bernard Tomic 6-3, 6-4 in the mixed doubles to give Italy a 2-1 win over Australia in Group A. Pennetta beat Stosur 6-4, 6-4 in the singles before Tomic leveled with a 4-6, 6-3, 6-2 win over Seppi. It was Australia's second loss in the tournament. Zvonareva falls to Li In Beijing, Chinese tennis star Li Na shone at the Shenzhen Open Tuesday, besting Russia's Vera Zvonareva as the former World No. 2 made her return to the court after a 17-month hiatus. The 31-year-old Li, Asia's highest-ranked player in tennis history, beat Zvonareva 7-5, 6-3 in one hour and 46 minutes. Zvonareva had triumphed over Li in four of their last five meetings, the most recent of which came in 2010. Taiwan's Chan Yung-jan, meanwhile, won a surprise victory over sixth-seed Zhang Shuai of China. Zhang took the first set 6-3, but Chan turned up the heat and battled back to win the next two, 6-4 and 6-2. — Agencies
