Venus Williams won her first match of 2006 after defeating 15-year-old Urszula Radwanska, a teenager from Poland, in the opening match of the J&S Cup in Warsaw. The American seventh seed advanced to the second round after winning in straight sets, 6-3, 6-3 on Wednesday. Williams only played at the Australian Open this season, where she lost in the first round. The five times Grand Slam champion stayed away from the courts after she picked up an elbow injury.

“I did rehab and tried to get better the best I could. I wasn’t playing 100% and I didn’t want to come back until I knew I could do that,” Williams said.

“It is important for me to improve and get a rhythm and start dominating.”

The 2004 Warsaw champion Williams will be meeting Martina Hingis in the second round and she is looking forward meeting her old rival again. Hingis is leading the head-to-head 10-9 against the oldest of the Williams sisters. Williams won their last two matchups in 2001 and 2002.

“We both like to dictate and control the point, even though we have different styles. I guess it will be like old times. She’s had a great year so far, just living her dreams.

“I think everybody is happy for her, and I am happy for here. It should be a very good match tomorrow.”

Belgian Kim Clijsters had no problems getting to the next round. The top seed defeated Julia Vakulenko 6-3, 6-2 in the second round of the J&S Cup after a bye in the first round.

Elena Dementieva of Russia defeated Tatiana Perebiynis of Ukraine. The third seed had an easy day at the office and won 6-2, 6-0.

Czech Klara Koukalova was upset by Agnieszka Radwanska, Urszula’s older sister. The 17-year-old Polish wild card player won her match 6-1 and 6-2. She will now meet Dementieva in the next round on Friday.

Third day of main draw action in Warsaw, but still first match for Dementieva who made sure she cut her on-court time short. She breezed past Ukrainian Tatiana Perebyinis by 6:2 and 6:0.

After building a strong 4-1 first set lead, still got her serve broken one more time before finally putting the set away by 6:2.

Second set was even worse for the Ukrainian who failed to win a single game throughout the set claming only five points en route to total crash versus a powerful Dementieva who aced twice and won all the points every time she placed her first serve in. Since this is Dementieva we’re talking about, the double-faults are a must when describing the Blonde’s game. She was impeccable in that department only producing three during the first set and coming clean during the second.

Next up for Dementieva will be home sensation, Agnieska Radwanska, who after beating Dementieva’s old nemesis Myskina breezed through her match versus Czech Klara Koukalova 6:1; 6:4.
Other results on day three include straight sets victories by Venus Williams, who now faces old rival Martina Hingis, Kim Clijsters and Francesca Schiavone who are playing each other for a most coveted place in the semifinals.

Anastasia´s first clay court match of the season became a stunning disaster when the Russian failed to progress, losing the opener 4-6 6-4 4-6 to young Polish player Agnieszka Radwanska in the J&S Cup on Tuesday. Nastya never really found her rythm and was constantly put under pressure by the 17-year-old Pole who is currently ranked 309th. The Pole was playing her first match in a WTA tourney.

After losing the first set, Nastya turned things around in the second set despite having been a break down. It did not help much though as Radwanska regained her confidence to run away with a 4-1 lead in the decider. Nastya managed to crawl her way back in and had a breakchance when the Wimbledon-Junior winner was serving for the match at 5-4. The Pole however prevented Nastya from breaking her by hitting a forehand winner before closing out the match with another winner.

Despite of that early loss, Nastya did not seem to worry all too much about it. “It’s the beginning of the clay court season and so nothing really bad happened today. Of course you lose a little bit of confidence but I guess I just need more matches,” she told reporters afterwards. “Just a couple of mistakes and the match is over. I saw her for the first time in my life so it’s a little bit difficult to play her.”

“I think she was a little luckier than me because some of her shots were unbelievable and really close to the line. Hers touched the line and mine were a little bit out.”

The Russian was more successful in doubles when she teamed up with Elena Likhovtseva to beat Chakvetadze/U.Radwanska 6-2 6-0. Would have been nice if Nastya had a similar score in singles but just like she said, it´s only the beginning of the clay season. Nastya´s next tournaments will be Rome, Istanbul and the French Open.

Agnieszka Radwanska from Poland has surprisingly defeated former French Open winner Anastasia Myskina.In three sets Radwanska proved to be the one that should be in the second round of the J&S Cup.

The third set started with a break for Radwanska. Myskina had tried to break her at 5-4 but recklessly gave away the point at deuce when she hit the ball long giving the Polish a match point which she graciously sealed.
End score: 6-4, 4-6, 6-4.

"The win was a huge surprise for me," said Radwanska, who now faces Czech Klara Koukalova. "She’s one of the world’s top players and I didn’t expect that I could win this match — but I’m very happy that I did."

Also through to the next round is Slovakian Daniela Hantuchova.

It took her 2 hours and 37 minutes to overcome Israel’s Anna Smashnova but she did it in three sets 4-6, 7-5, 6-3.

Italian Schiavoni defeated Emma Laine from Finland to go through to the next 6-0,6-1.

"I was just really glad how I stuck in there and kept fighting for every point," Hantuchova said afterwards at the pressconference. "That’s what makes the difference for me, now being able to win these matches."

Fourteenth-seeded Martina Hingis overcame Maria Kirilenko with a straight set victory, 7-5, 7-6(1) to advance into second round of the J & S Cup where she’ll meet the winner beween Urzula Radwanska and Venus Williams.

In the first set, Martina took the first two games by holding her serve and breaking Maria’s serve. Maria then leveled the score by taking the next two games, in the process breaking Hingis’ serve and holding her own serve. The next games were fought well by both women with Hingis winning the next game to bring the score to 3-2, not to be outdone though, Kirilenko leveled the match by winning the next game at 3-3. Kirilenko then won two of the next three games to lead the first set at 5-4. Raring to finish the match, Hingis then won the last three games of the first set, which lasted one hour and a minute, bringing the score to7-5.

The second set was a tightly fought one. Maria Kirilenko went on to win the first set by breaking Martina Hingis’ serve. Martina then leveled the score by winning the second set, breaking Maria’s serve in the process. Maria responded to Martina’s charge by winning the third game of the second set, to turn the score into her favor at 2-1. Then came the rain delay that lasted more or less thirty minutes. The players split the next eight games with Martina and Maria winning four games each to set the score at 6-5, with Maria leading. At 6-5, Maria Kirilenko had the chance to serve out the match and force a third deciding set, but Martina broke her serve to even the score at 6-6 and force a tiebreaker which Martina Hingis won.

“We were just breaking each other, and most times pretty easily. It was very difficult conditions. I think that today, whoever had the stronger head and stayed in the match won,” a beaming Martina said.