Pe'er cruises into third round

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
Shahar Pe'er continued to stroll through the early rounds of the French Open on Thursday, defeating Edina Gallovits 6-4, 6-1 in the second round. The 20-year-old Israeli, who is ranked No. 17 in the world and seeded 15th at the Roland Garros, will next face Slovenian Katarina Srebotnik (20), who defeated Russian Vera Dushevina 6-4, 6-2 on Thursday. Despite the easy win, Pe'er will need to improve her play in subsequent rounds to continue advancing at this year's second Grand Slam. She hit 23 unforced errors on Thursday, only eight less than her opponent, and converted just five of her 10 break points. Gallovits raced into a surprise 2-0 lead at the start of the match, breaking Pe'er in the second game. Pe'er hit back immediately and tied the score at 2-2 with a love service game. After splitting the next four games, Pe'er broke Gallovits for a second time in the ninth game of the match and wrapped up the first set on her serve in the following game. A break in the first game of the second set gave Pe'er a lead she would not relinquish as she began to dominate as the match progressed. Gallovits would move within one game of Pe'er after claiming the third game of the set, but a five-game run completed the win for Pe'er in exactly 70 minutes. A couple of hours after ending her singles match Pe'er returned to play her first-round doubles match. Pe'er and partner Dinara Safina, who are seeded 11th, defeated Italian duo Flavia Pennetta and Roberta Vinci 5-4, 7-6 7-6 after a rain delay. Andy Ram' and Yoni Erlich' first-round match against French duo Sebastien Grosjean and Cyril Saulnier was also suspended because of the rain. Also on Thursday, Tzipi Obziler and Russian partner Ekaterina Bychkova lost 7-6 (6), 6-1 to Spanish duo Lourdes Dominguez Lino and Arantxa Parra Santonja in the first round of the doubles tournament.