TOKYO (AFP) - Wimbledon champion Maria Sharapova had a long day along with 2002 Wimbledon finalists Lleyton Hewitt and David Nalbandian in their first matches at the Japan Open tennis tournament.
The 17-year-old Russian starlet Sharapova had to recover Wednesday from 0-2 down in the final set before fending off the challenge from Australian qualifier Samantha Stosur 6-4, 1-6, 6-3.
Men's top seed Hewitt from Australia, who never lost a single set in the US Open before losing the final last month, surprisingly went the distance with Japan's Goichi Motomura before winning 6-0, 3-6, 6-1 in 95 minutes.
Second seed Nalbandian from Argentina stormed back from two match points down in the second set to beat qualifier Wang Yeu-tzuoo of Taiwan 3-6, 7-6 (7/4), 6-2.
Earlier in the day, the 16-year-old French Open mixed doubles champion Tatiana Golovin of France bowed to Nicole Vaidisova of the Czech Republic, the youngest player here at 15 years five months.
"I just didn't want to lose early," said Sharapova, who captured her first WTA singles and doubles titles a year ago here.
"She (Stosur) was just playing some really great tennis in the second and at the beginning of the third. I played her in Korea and the surface is a lot slower so I was able to return a lot of her serves.
"Here the court is faster, so she's got a lot more advantages on her serve, because she has a very big serve. I was very happy that I could break her (in the fourth and eighth games of the final set)," said Sharapova.
Hewitt meanwhile admitted he had a patchy performance against Motomura.
"In the first set, I didn't feel like I played great, but I got through 6-0," said Hewitt.
"I had a lot of opportunities in the second set, nearly in every one of his service games. But once he got on the scoreboard, then he lifted his game quite a lot better.
"But I had one slack game at 4-3 in the second set to lose my serve. I was 40-15 up in that game, a couple of double faults, I just played a couple of slack points. Against anyone, you can't afford to do that.
"Even at 5-3 on his serve, I still had a break point. I couldn't convert that, but the whole third set I felt like I was pretty much in command," added Hewitt.
In the third round Hewitt will take on another Japanese, wild card entrant Takao Suzuki, who eliminated 15th seed Jan Hernych of the Czech Republic 7-6 (7/4), 3-6, 7-5.
Golovin committed her seventh and eighth double faults at 4-5 in the final set to give a triple match point, allowing Vaidisova to hit a backhand pass for a clean winner to win the battle of the teens.
"I think it's just concentration. It's frustration also from not being able to play the way I wanted to do during the whole match," Golovin said of the two double faults.
"Obviously I shouldn't hit double faults many times. It was windy out there but it was windy for both players, so I can't say it was an excuse," she added.
Thai ace Tamarine Tanasugarn eliminated 2002 Japan champion Jill Craybas of the United States 6-3, 7-6 (7/2), while Germany's Michael Kohlmann downed Kenneth Carlsen of Denmark, also the winner here in 2002, by 7-5, 6-2.