Mauresmo Too Much For Karatantcheva

The featured opening night match on Day Four was third seed Amelie Mauresmo against Bulgarian prospect Sesil Karatantcheva. Experience versus youth.

Thursday night, Mauresmo's experience overwhelmed the youthful enthusiasm of the 16-year-old Karatantcheva with the Frenchwoman easily prevailing 6-0, 6-1 at Ashe Stadium.

Though the 50 minute match was routine for the 26-year-old Mauresmo, Karatantcheva still battled hard in the second set, forcing Mauresmo to work more for the points. That set took 31 minutes to play compared to a brief 19 in the opening set where Karatantcheva was bageled.

A talented baseliner, Karatantcheva hit well with Mauresmo producing several long rallies. One lasted 24 strokes before the inexperienced teenager finally made one of her 29 unforced errors. When she held serve to get on the board in the second set, the knowledgable New York crowd gave her a hand. They knew that she didn't quit against a quality top five opponent. But on this night, Mauresmo was too much for the French Open quarterfinalist, converting six of six break chances including a crosscourt forehand winner to punctuate the second round win.

Though she only took one game, Karatantcheva competed well and will be back in the future.

It was a good day for seeded players. Earlier on, seeds who made Round Three included American Lindsay Davenport (2), Elena Dementieva (6), Justine Henin-Hardenne (7), Patty Schnyder (11), Mary Pierce (12), Anastasia Myskina (13), Nathalie Dechy (15), Jelena Jankovic (17), Elena Likhovtseva (19), Tatiana Golovin (23), Shinobu Asagoe (24), Anna Chakvetadze (29), Anna-Lena Groenefeld (31) and Anabel Medina Garrigues (32).

Only 27th seed Gisela Dulko fell to Korean Yoon Jeong Cho 6-4, 6-3.


Day Five will feature American Taylor Dent in second round action while women's top seed Maria Sharapova and American Serena Williams will play their third round matches. The night session features sister Venus trying to get the Round of 16 while men's defending champ and top seed Roger Federer is in second round action.