American Jill Craybas rallied to beat second-seeded Aravane Rezai of France 6-3, 3-6, 7-6 (3) in the first round of the Bell Challenge Tuesday. Top-seeded Marion Bartoli of France, No. 3 seed Lucie Safarova of the Czech Republic and fifth-seeded American Melanie Oudin all won in straight sets. Canadian Valerie Tetreault also moved on, upsetting No. 4 seed Barbora Zahlavova Strycova of the Czech Republic 6-3, 3-6, 6-2 in the $220,000 WTA Tour event at the Club Avantage Multi-Sports de Quebec. Bartoli breezed past her French compatriot Stephanie Foretz Gacon 6-1, 6-1. Bartoli advances to face Canadian wild card Rebecca Morino in the second round. Bartoli needed just 58 minutes to oust Foretz in dominating fashion. She hammered four aces and won 84 percent of her first serve points. She also saved six of seven break points compared to just one of seven for her opponent. In other matches involving seeded players, Oudin beat Alison Riske 6-2, 7-6 (7-3) and Safarova stopped Varvara Lepchenko 7-5, 6-3. Oudin, who lost in the second round of the just completed US Open, won 80 percent of her first-serve points and 65 percent of her second-serve points. Oudin was only broken once, while breaking Riske's serve three times. Mirza beats Amanmuradova at Guangzhou Sania Mirza of India ousted third-seeded Akgul Amanmuradova of Uzbekistan 6-4, 6-3 Wednesday in a day of upsets in the second round of the Guangzhou International. Mirza broke her opponent four times while losing serve just once. Fifth-seeded Chang Kai-Chen of Taiwan and No. 8 Chanelle Scheepers of South Africa were also eliminated. Chang lost 1-6, 6-2, 6-4 to Chinese wild card Han Xinyun, while Scheepers was routed 6-1, 6-0 by unseeded Zhang Shuai of China. Alla Kudryavtseva of Russia also advanced, beating compatriot Ekaterina Ivanova 6-4, 3-6, 6-2. Baghdatis at Brisbane Marcos Baghdatis confirmed Wednesday he will compete in the Brisbane International in the lead-up to the Australian Open, but left in doubt whether he will defend his Sydney International title. “I like Australia, I like playing there, so for sure it would be a great preparation,” the Cypriot and world No. 18 said of the Jan. 2-9 Brisbane event. “And I think I will look forward to playing there.” Baghdatis, a crowd favorite Down Under ever since he reached the 2006 Australian Open final, was knocked out in the second round in his last showing in Brisbane but quickly bounced back to beat Frenchman Richard Gasquet in the final of the Sydney tournament. He told Australian news agency AAP that how he played in Brisbane would influence whether he would contest the Sydney competition which begins on Jan. 9. “It depends on that moment and how many matches I will play in Brisbane and how much fatigue I will have on me,” he said. Baghdatis will join defending champion Andy Roddick at Brisbane.
