Pierce is ready to bounce back from injury
Mary Pierce looked ready to bounce back from injury as she beat Alicia Molik 6-3 6-4 in the Family Circle Cup on Tuesday.
The Frenchwoman won the 2000 French Open but shoulder, back and ankle injuries during the past 20 months have left her ranked 232 in the world.
"I just feel better and better every match I play," said Pierce, who won this title in Charleston, South Carolina en route to her Roland Garros victory.
"You can play as many practice matches or sets or practise on the court and all those things are good and well.
"But nothing takes the place of playing tournament matches, and that's just what I haven't been able to do that much of in the past two years.
"The more matches I can play and stay healthy, the better."
Second seed Monica Seles spent one hour 46 minutes battling fellow American Amy Frazier before closing out the second round match by a 4-6 6-3 6-0 margin.
"I was a little bit hesitant in the beginning and couldn't find my form," said Seles, who trailed 5-0 in the first set before picking up her game.
"But I hung in there and I turned things around."
Serena Williams barely broke sweat as she beat fellow American Jennifer Hopkins 6-0 6-2 in just 40 minutes.
"I'm satisfied," Williams said. "I played pretty well out there. It seems like I hit a lot of winners and normally you don't do that on clay."
Stress fracture
Anna Kournikova lost 7-6 6-1 to Conchita Martinez, who was celebrating her 30th birthday.
The Russian believes she is making progress after sitting out most of last year with a stress fracture to her left foot.
"Today was the best match that I played in the last four tournaments and especially against Conchita," Kournikova said.
"She's an experienced player on clay. So I'm definitely happy with the progress I've made."
Martinez said: "It was very important to win that first set. I felt we were not playing our best tennis and after I won the opener she seemed to fall away."
Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario of Spain swept aside Rita Grande of Italy 6-4, 6-2 and Daniela Hantuchova of Slovakia, seeded 11th, beat Rossana Neffa-De Los Rios of Paraguay 4-6, 7-6 (7/4), 6-0.
Tuesday's first round results from the Family Circle Cup (seeds are in bold):
J Husarova (Svk) bt S Reeves (US) 3-6 6-3 6-3
Second Round
N Dechy (Fra) bt E Likhovtseva (Rus) 6-4 7-6 (7-3)
10-A Sanchez-Vicario (Esp) bt R Grande (Ita) 6-4 6-2
11-D Hantuchova (Svk) bt R Neffa-de los Rios (Par) 6-7 (1-7) 6-2 6-1
M Pierce (Fra) bt A Molik (Aus) 6-3 6-4
P Schnyder (Swi) bt V Ruano Pascual (Spa) 6-2 6-3
P Suarez (Arg) bt M Irvin (US) 6-1 6-1
13-A Coetzer (SA) bt E de Lone (US) 6-4 6-2
A Sugiyama (Jpn) bt A Kremer (Lux) 3-6 6-4 6-4
12-E Dementieva (Rus) bt R Fujiwara (Jpn) 7-6 (9-7) 6-1
S Foretz (Fra) bt W Prakusya (Ina) 6-2 6-0
C Martinez (Spa) bt A Kournikova (Rus) 7-6 (7-5) 6-1
C Fernandez (Arg) bt 9-S Farina Elia (Ita) 7-6 (7-4) 6-0
I Majoli (Cro) bt M-G Mikaelian (Swi) 6-2 6-4
2-M Seles (US) bt A Frazier (US) 6-4 3-6 6-0
3-S Williams (US) bt J Hopkins (US) 6-0 6-2
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