Tennis: Pe’er, Sela claim victories in Paris, San Jose

Shahar defeats Alize Cornet 6-4, 6-1 to reach the second round of the Open GDF Suez tournament.

By ALLON SINAI
After an excellent January, Shahar Pe’er began February on the right track Tuesday, defeating Alize Cornet 6-4, 6-1 to reach the second round of the Open GDF Suez tournament in Paris.
Pe’er reached the semifinals in Auckland and the finals in Hobart in her first two events of the year before losing to world No. 3 Caroline Wozniacki in the third round of the Australian Open.
On Tuesday, Pe’er (22), who is seeded No. 6 in Paris, needed an hour and 17 minutes to brush aside Cornet (65) and she will next face Croatia’s Karolina Sprem (88).
In other action, Dudi Sela (45) beat Colombian Santiago Giraldo (100) 7-6 (2), 7-6 (4) in the first round of the SAP Open in San Jose on Monday and plays the winner of Tuesday night’s match between Phillip Kohlschreiber (29) and Rajeev Ram (79) in the second round.
Meanwhile in Paris, Patty Schnyder of Switzerland beat seventh-seeded Virginie Razzano of France 6-3, 7-6 (3).
Schnyder pressured Razzano’s serve, forcing 11 break points and converting three of them to edge through in a tight contest at the indoor tournament on hard courts at Stade Pierre de Coubertin.
Schnyder next plays Melanie Oudin of the United States, a US Open quarterfinalist last year.
There were straight-sets wins Tuesday for Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova of Russia, Andrea Petkovic of Germany, Lucie Safarova of the Czech Republic, and Oudin.
Top-seeded Elena Dementieva of Russia, last year’s runner-up to Amelie Mauresmo, and No. 2 Flavia Pennetta of Italy have byes into the second round. Dementieva plays Pavlyuchenkova, and Pennetta faces Julie Coin of France or Alisa Kleybanova of Russia.