Sydney, Australia (My Sportsbook) - Top-seeded American Serena Williams earned her 400th professional win Sunday, topping Australian Samantha Stosur, 6-3, 6-7 (4-7), 7-5, in first-round play at the Medibank International, a tune-up for the Australian Open, the first Grand Slam event of 2009. Williams became the 55th player on the WTA Tour in the Open Era (since 1968) to reach the 400 career win mark and 13th American player to accomplish the feat, but needed 2 1/2 hours to win the match. Williams, a nine-time Grand Slam champion, served ahead 6-5 in the second set, but then lost the tiebreaker before saving five match points to record the victory. There were a pair of other first-round matches Sunday. Fifth seed Svetlana Kuznetsova of Russia beat China's Shuai Peng, 3-6, 6-1, 6-3, and sixth seed Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland ousted Austria's Sybille Bammer, 6-4, 6-3. |
