By Dave "KOZ" Kozlowski
(June 14, 2011) The long awaited arrival of professional tennis at Sea Colony, the premiere beach and tennis resort in Bethany Beach, DE is officially in the books. Day one of the main draw featured 28 year-old tour veteran Maria –Fernanda Alves of Brazil advancing in straight sets. The top seeded Alves, winner of 18 International Tennis Federation singles titles and 35 doubles titles and a career high WTA singles ranking of 132 in 2005 recorded a 6-3, 6-2 victory over University of Virginia sophomore Jessica Lawrence of Lake Worth, FL at the ResortQuest Pro Women’s Open at Sea Colony.
Sixth seeded, seventeen year old Chanelle Van Nguyen of Miami, Florida lead a parade of five Americans into the second round. Van Nguyen, who a week ago reached the finals of the US International Grass Court Championships in Philadelphia, PA defeated qualifier fellow American Virginia Tech junior Martha Blakely of Reading, PA 6-4, 6-1.
1st Round Singles results
Maria-Fernanda ALVES (BRA) [1] def Jessica LAWRENCE (USA) 6-3 6-2 Chanelle VAN NGUYEN (USA) [6] def Martha V BLAKELY (USA) 6-4 6-1
Alexa GUARACHI (USA) def Nicole ROBINSON (USA) [7] 6-1 6-0
Gaia SANESI (ITA) def Alexandra HIRSCH (USA) 4-6 6-2 6-2
Kelsey LAURENTE (USA) def Joanne SCHICKERLING (RSA) 6-0 7-5
Angelina GABUEVA (RUS) [3] def Joelle KISSELL (USA) 5-7 7-6(7) 6-2
Denise STARR (USA) def Svetlana KRIVENCHEVA (BUL) 7-5 6-0
Molly O'KONIEWSKI (USA) def Vanja GALIJASEVIC (AUS) 6-2 6-0
1st Round Doubles
Kelsey LAURENTE (USA) / Nicole ROBINSON (USA) def Emily J. HARMAN (USA) / Madeleine KOBELT (USA) [3] 6-0 4-6 [10-6]
Alexandra HIRSCH (USA) [2] / Lena LITVAK (USA) def Katie RUCKERT (USA) / Joanne SCHICKERLING (RSA) 6-3 6-2
Kyle MCPHILLIPS (USA) [4] / Chanelle VAN NGUYEN (USA) def Nika KUKHARCHUK (RUS) / Xin WEN (CHN) 6-2 6-4
Dianne HOLLANDS (NZL) / Simone KALHORN (USA) def Eva RASZKIEWICZ (USA) / Katrine Isabel STEFFENSEN (USA) 3-6 6-1 [10-8]
The remaining eight first round singles and four doubles matches will be played on Wednesday June 15 at the awarding winning Sea Colony Tennis Center.