Amelie Mauresmo is safely through to the second round of the Qatar Open after beating in-form German teenager Sabine Lisicki.
More struggles for ailing Petrova
Former world number one Amelie Mauresmo is safely through to the second round of the Qatar Open after beating in-form German teenager Sabine Lisicki 7-6 6-3.
Mauresmo is on the comeback trail after slipping out of the world's top 20 following an emergency appendectomy 11 months ago and has yet to get beyond the quarter-final stage this year.
The 18-year old Lisicki presented a tough-looking challenge after earning her first win over a top 20 opponent by beating Dinara Safina to reach the third round of the Australian Open, and then defeated Lindsay Davenport in a Fed Cup tie.
So the Frenchwoman was relieved to get through. "It was a good first match," the 14th seed told Reuters. "In the first match you don't really expect to play your best tennis, especially when you haven't got many matches behind you, so I'm just happy about the way it went today."
Mauresmo had a set point at 6-5 but netted a routine return before taking the set on a tiebreak. Then, after losing an early break in the second, she broke Lisicki from 40-0 to lead 4-3 and claimed the next two games as the teenager tired.
Confidence
"I thought I started pretty slow with some up and downs," Mauresmo added. "I was doing a few mistakes here and there that I was not really happy about, but I thought it got a little bit better and the serve was not too bad today.
"The confidence is growing every time I have a win I guess. It's definitely not at the highest it can be, but I'm fighting. I'm out there to find it back and that's what I'm trying to do."
But Russia's 10th seed Nadia Petrova is out after retiring with a stomach upset when trailing Spain's Anabel Medina Garrigues 6-2 2-1.
Petrova has now won only three matches from her last eight.
Also on Monday, Shahar Peer became the first Israeli to play a tour event in the Gulf region when she beat Slovenia's Andreja Klepac 6-3 6-4.
