SYDNEY: Former US Open champion Juan Martin del Potro, returning from a wrist injury that sidelined him for much of 2010, beat sixth-seeded Feliciano Lopez of Spain 6-7 (5), 7-6 (9), 7-6 (3) Monday in the first round of the Sydney International. The Argentine saved a match point in the second set and finally prevailed on his first match point in the third-set tiebreaker, hitting a forehand to the open court. The match took more than three hours to complete. “I didn't expect this kind of match for the start, but we played a beautiful match, very close,” Del Potro said. “Feliciano is a fantastic player on this kind of surface, and I played good tennis again.” Florian Mayer of Germany and Sergiy Stakhovsky of Ukraine also advanced. Defending champion Marcos Baghdatis withdrew from the tournament due to a left groin injury he picked up during a training session over the weekend. The second-seeded Cypriot, a 2006 finalist at the Australian Open, was replaced in the main draw by lucky loser Lukasz Kubot of Poland. In women's play, French Open champion Francesca Schiavone of Italy lost to Alisa Kleybanova of Russia 6-7 (5), 6-1, 6-2 and sixth-seeded Jelena Jankovic of Serbia was eliminated by Aravane Rezai of France 7-5, 2-6, 6-3. Roland Garros runner-up Sam Stosur of Australia advanced to the second round by beating Yanina Wickmayer of Belgium 7-5, 6-4, while seventh-seeded Victoria Azarenka of Belarus beat Ekaterina Makarova of Russia 2-6, 6-2, 6-4 and eighth-seeded Li Na of China defeated Anastasia Rodionova of Australia 6-1, 6-2. Kohlschreiber wins Former champion Philipp Kohlschreiber has overcome a slow start to beat Carlos Berlocq of Argentina 2-6, 6-3, 6-1 in the first round of the Heineken Open Tennis Tournament in Auckland. Earlier, Tommy Robredo of Spain also came from a set down to beat New Zealand wild card Michael Venus 6-7 (6), 6-3, 6-0. In the only other main draw match on Monday, Santiago Giraldo of Colombia beat Daniel Gimeno-Traver of Spain 6-2, 6-4, improving his singles record to 3-1 in 2011 after he reached the quarterfinals of last week's Brisbane International. Safina loses Former No. 1 Dinara Safina was beaten 6-0, 6-1 by Marion Bartoli of France at the Hobart International Monday, her second consecutive first-round loss at a warmup tournament for the Australian Open. The Russian, who is trying to recover her form after a serious back injury, was defeated by Yanina Wickmayer of Belgium in three sets at the Auckland tournament last week. Bethanie Mattek-Sands of the United States advanced to the second round when Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova of Russia retired with a hip injury at the start of the second set after the American won the first set 6
