PARIS, Feb 11: Fourth seed Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland charged into the second round of the Paris Open with a 6-1, 6-1 demolition of Ukraine’s Oxana Lyubtsova on Tuesday.

World number 10 Radwanska was in a hurry on the Pierre de Coubertin stadium’s centre court, taking only 48 minutes to set up a meeting with Russian Alisa Kleybanova.

Lyubtsova failed to score a single point on her second serve and bowed out on the first match point.

In a good day for the local favourites, Alize Cornet put her Fed Cup nightmare behind her by thrashing Latvian qualifier Anastasija Sevastova 6-1, 6-3.

Cornet, who lost both of her singles matches in a 5-0 rout by Italy in the World Group first round tie last weekend, will next play Daniela Hantuchova.

The Slovakian beat Russian Ekaterina Makarova 6-2, 6-2 in the final match of the day.

France’s Nathalie Dechy and Emilie Loit both progressed by defeating Romania’s Sorana Cirstea and Czech Nicole Vaidisova respectively.

World No 1 and Australian Open champion Serena Williams was playing Czech Iveta Benesova in the first round on Wednesday.

Tuesday’s results (prefix number denotes seeding):

First round: Daniela Hantuchova (Slovakia) bt Ekaterina Makarova (Russia) 6-2, 6-2; 5-Alize Cornet (France) bt Anastasija Sevastova (Latvia) 6-1, 6-3; Karolina Sprem (Croatia) bt Petra Kvitova (Czech Republic) 6-3, 6-1; Monica Niculescu (Romania) bt Timea Bacsinszky (Switzerland) 6-4, 6-3; Emilie Loit (France) bt Nicole Vaidisova (Czech Republic) 6-1, 6-4; 4-Agnieszka Radwanska (Poland) bt Oxana Lyubtsova (Ukraine) 6-1, 6-1; Alisa Kleybanova (Russia) bt Tsvetana Pironkova (Bulgaria) 6-2, 7-6 (7-3); Nathalie Dechy (France) bt Sorana Cirstea (Romania) 6-2, 1-6, 6-2.

MURRAY REGAINS FORM

ROTTERDAM: Briton Andy Murray regained his winning form as he eased past Croatia’s Ivan Ljubicic 6-3, 6-2 in the first round of the World Indoor Tournament on Tuesday.

Murray had an excellent start of the season, winning two warm-up events in the run-up to the Australian Open, but his hopes of winning a maiden Grand Slam title was stalled by Fernando Verdasco in the fourth round at Melbourne Park.

On Tuesday, he was back to his best.

Ljubicic, finalist in Rotterdam in 2005 and 2007, only kept up with Murray the first six games before he dropped his serve in the eighth game and lost eight games in a row.

The second seed will be on guard in his next match as he will be up against Andreas Seppi.

The Italian knocked out Lleyton Hewitt and Rafael Nadal from the tournament last year and also defeated Murray in their only meeting to date.

Murray was joined in the second round by fifth seed Gael Monfils and sixth seed David Ferrer.

Monfils got an easy ride on Tuesday as he was leading 6-4, 1-0 when his Swiss opponent Stephane Bohli retired injured.

Spaniard Ferrer had to scrap past Austria’s Juergen Melzer 3-6, 7-6, 7-5.

Bulgarian wildcard Grigor Dimitrov recorded his first win on the ATP Tour by downing Czech Tomas Berdych 4-6, 6-3, 6-4.

The world No 478’s Rotterdam adventure is likely to end in the next round, however, as he is expected to face world No 1 Rafael Nadal provided the Spaniard overcomes Simone Bolelli on Wednesday.

Results:

First round: Paul-Henri Mathieu (France) bt Richard Gasquet (France) 3-6, 7-6 (7-4), 6-3; 2-Andy Murray (Britain) bt Ivan Ljubicic (Croatia) 6-3, 6-2; 5-Gael Monfils (France) bt Stephane Bohli (Switzerland) 6-4, 1-0 – Bohli retired; 6-David Ferrer (Spain) bt Juergen Melzer (Austria) 3-6, 7-6 (7-4), 7-5; Grigor Dimitrov (Bulgaria) bt Tomas Berdych (Czech Republic) 4-6, 6-3, 6-4.

RODDICK PREVAILS

SAN JOSE (California): Top seed Andy Roddick began his bid for a fourth San Jose Open title with a 6-0, 7-6 opening-round victory over Swedish qualifier Michael Ryderstedt on Tuesday.

“It was a different match,” the defending champion told reporters. “There wasn’t a whole lot of rhythm to be had.”

Roddick wrapped up the first set in 19 minutes, restricting Ryderstedt to just five points. However, the ease of winning the set made the second tough, the American world number six said.

Roddick captured 88 per cent of points on his first serve and 74 per cent on the second.

Fifth-seeded American Mardy Fish also won in straight sets, turning back Australian Lleyton Hewitt 7-6 6-3.

Eighth-seeded Robby Ginepri fell 3-6 7-6 6-4 to fellow American Todd Widom.

Results:

First round: 5-Mardy Fish (US) bt Lleyton Hewitt (Australia) 7-6 (7-5), 6-3; 1-Andy Roddick (US) bt Michael Ryderstedt (Sweden) 6-0 7-6 (7-3); Todd Widom (US) bt 8-Robby Ginepri (US) 3-6 7-6 (7-2), 6-4; Ernests Gulbis (Latvia) bt Ricardo Mello (Brazil) 7-6 (7-4), 6-4; Chris Guccione (Australia) bt Guillermo Canas (Argentina) 7-6 (9-7), 7-5; Denis Gremelmayr (Germany) bt Roko Karanusic (Croatia) 3-6, 7-6 (7-4), 6-2.—Reuters