TheSportsCampus

Defending champion Dinara Safina's U.S. hardcourt season began with a bang Wednesday night as the No. 1 player in the world had little trouble with 2005 runner-up Daniela Hantuchova of Slovakia, 6-2, 6-4, during the second round of the $700,000 2009 LA Women's Tennis Championships.

"She's a dangerous player," said Safina, who holds a 6-4 career advantage over Hantuchova. "I know what I have to do. I just have to go out there and be aggressive, there is no other way for me. The only chance I can beat her is play my game and be aggressive."

The win also meant that Safina is the first player to qualify for the season-ending Sony Ericsson Championships, set to take place at the Khalifa International Tennis Complex in Doha, Qatar, from Oct. 27-Nov. 1, 2009.

Safina takes center stage in the only singles night match on Thursday as she meets China's Jie Zheng in the Round of 16.

In an intriguing second-round match, Maria Sharapova grinded out a two-hour, 32-minute win over Belarussian Victoria Azarenka, 6-7 (4), 6-4, 6-2. In their only other meeting, the recently turned 20 Azarenka beat Sharapova in Moscow in 2007 in straight sets.

"She's had a great year and I'm happy with the way I stayed with her," said Sharapova of Azarenka, who beat Serena Williams to win the Sony Ericsson Miami tournament in April. "I think that was sort of the difference. I think I've done a really good job of playing different opponents and working on the things that need to be adjusted."

Sharapova will next play Thursday in the third match against Alona Bondarenko of the Ukraine, a player she lost to in her first match back this year in Poland after 10 months off the circuit because of shoulder surgery.

"I don't like losing to the same person twice in a row," Sharapova said. "I lost to her in Poland my first match back so I'm looking forward to playing her tomorrow."

The final match was a fourth consecutive third-set night match and second straight night match that ended in a third-set tiebreaker as No. 4-seeded Caroline Wozniacki was beaten by world No. 28 ranked Sorana Cirstea of Romania, 1-6, 6-4, 7-6 (5). Cirstea, 19, eliminated Wozniacki in the French Open where she made it all the way to the quarterfinals. Incidentally the two girls are playing the doubles together here in LA.

A host of other seeded players also advanced to the last 16: No.5 seed Nadia Petrova, No.8 seed Agnieszka Radwanska, No.10 seed Flavia Pennetta, No.12 seed Li Na, No.13 seed Samantha Stosur and No.14 seed Zheng Jie all came through the second round unscathed.

Agnieszka Radwanska coasted through with a 6-2, 6-1 win over Japanese veteran Ai Sugiyama. Joining her in the third round will be her younger sister Urszula, who upset the No. 7 seed Dominika Cibulkova of Slovakia, 6-4, 6-7 (6), 6-4.

Thursday Line-up:

Y Wickmayer (BEL) vs [2] V Zvonareva (RUS)
[13] S Stosur (AUS) vs [6] A Ivanovic (SRB)
A Bondarenko (UKR) vs M Sharapova (RUS)
S Cirstea (ROU) vs [17] S Lisicki (GER)
A Chakvetadze (RUS) vs [8] A Radwanska (POL)
[5] N Petrova (RUS) vs [10] F Pennetta (ITA)
U Radwanska (POL) vs [12] N Li (CHN)
[1] D Safina (RUS) vs [14] J Zheng (CHN)