Stosur holds court in Brisbane

Australia's top ranked woman Sam Stosur has wasted no time in her bid to crack the
world's top 30, producing an impressive straight sets victory on her first day of
the Brisbane International.
On an otherwise disappointing day of results for Australia's women, with a valiant
Jelena Dokic losing and Hopman Cup representative Casey Dellacqua going down in
Perth, Stosur flew the flag by disposing of ninth seed Ai Sugiyama 6-2 6-3 to the
delight of the home crowd.
Minus her customary sunglasses at the covered Pat Rafter Arena, the world No.52
looked in control and dominated play against her older opponent.
Pushed continually throughout the match, Stosur saved seven break points to deny
Sugiyama any chance of a comeback.
Her opening round victory was a grand return to form by the Australian, who has
endured almost two years of hampered play due to illness and injury.
She reached a career-high of No.27 in early 2007, before bouts with viral meningitis
and lyme disease pulled her back down.
The 24-year-old said it was a great start to the year and now has her eye on
returning to the top 30 fold.
"If I can get back to the top 30 as soon as possible that would be great," Stosur said.
"I haven't really put a number on it as such in my own head, but ... if I can keep
playing like that and hopefully improve on it, then hopefully I can do well.
"But it's the same old thing: take one match at a time."
Dokic, who also has eyes on climbing the rankings after a long absence, managed to
push fifth seed Amelie Mauresmo to two tiebreaks, but could not go all the way,
eventually falling 7-6 (11-9) 7-6 (7-5).
Tournament wildcard Dokic hit 31 winners to Mauresmo's seven, but conceded 33
unforced errors to six and failed with two chances to serve for the first set.
"It hurts knowing I had those chances against her," said Dokic, who played her last
professional match in May last year.
"If I got blown away maybe it wouldn't hurt so much."
Mauresmo said later she thought the signs suggested Dokic could one day compete with
the world's top ranked women.
It was a tough day for fourth seed Daniela Hantuchova, who was booted from the
tournament by 21-year-old Italian surprise packet Sara Errani 7-6 6-4 6-0.
Another leading light to bow out was eighth seed Francesca Schiavone from Italy, who
was defeated by Belarus' Olga Govortsova 7-5 6-2.
Qualifiers also had a good day with Italian Roberta Vinci, Hungarian Melinda Czink
and lucky loser Julie Coin, of France, all upsetting higher-ranked opponents to get
through to the second round.