15-year-old advances to second round
INDIAN WELLS, Calif. -- Sesil Karatantcheva has shown she can talk a good game.
Now, the 15-year-old Bulgarian will get a chance to prove she can play one.
Karatantcheva advanced Thursday to the second round of the $2.1-million Pacific Life Open with a 6-7 (5), 6-0, 6-2 victory over German player Marlene Weingartner. She will next face top-ranked and No. 1 seed Lindsay Davenport.
It's a situation similar to last year, when then 14-year-old Karatantcheva made her WTA Tour debut by reaching the quarterfinals against Maria Sharapova and threatened to "kick her butt off" because of a perceived slight during training in Florida.
Karatantcheva lost that match, and she's not making any predictions about the one against Davenport.
"I'm going to approach things more professionally. You don't get to play the best player in the world every day," she said. "I really have to play good and I know if I don't do what I'm supposed to do it's just not going to happen."
Karatantcheva, who lost that match last year to Sharapova in three sets, said they have never talked about it and she isn't sure it's necessary.
"Besides, I was 14. I have a right for one strike," said Karatantcheva, who is ranked No. 89 on the WTA Tour.
The first round was finished Thursday with U.S. players Angela Haynes, Lindsay Lee-Waters and Jessica Kirkland advancing in early matches. Also advancing were Daja Bedanova, of the Czech Republic; Ludmila Cervanova, of Slovakia; Yoon Jeong Cho, of Korea; Antonella Serra Zanetti, of Italy; Alonya Bondarenko and Viktoriya Kutuzova, of Ukraine; Emilie Loit, of France and Spanieard Maria Sanchez Lorenzo. The tournament, which concludes March 20, continues Friday with second round women's play and first round men's matches.
Copyright 2005 by The Associated Press
