Tennis News

Melanie Oudin made a strong start but wasn't able to escape a tricky first round encounter against Roberta Vinci, falling to the crafty Italian in a see-saw battle, 36 63 60.

Oudin, ranked No.41 in the world - America's No.3 player, with the Williams sisters both in the Top 5 - started quickly, capturing the first set in 34 minutes. But she was broken in a four deuce game in the fourth game of the second set and Vinci took over from there, taking that middle set and rolling through the decider at love.

The Serbian goes into BNP Paribis Open ranked just behind Roger Federer in the world, as he strengthens ties to the U.S.

Roger Federer and former tennis greats Pete Sampras, Martina Navratilova and Steffi Graf will play in exhibition matches on Friday to raise money for victims of the Haiti earthquake.

Andy Murray believes the players should be involved in deciding who leads Britain's Davis Cup side should current captain John Lloyd be asked to leave.

Lloyd is under pressure after GB's loss to Lithuania, which means they will drop into the Davis Cup's lowest tier if they lose to Turkey in July.

"I would like to think the players ... should have a strong say on who they think should come in," said Murray.

"It's very important the players are comfortable with who the captain is."

Mardy Fish, the BNP Paribas Open runner-up in 2008, beat Michael Berrer of Germany, 1-6, 6-1, 6-3 in a first-round match Thursday at the Tennis Garden.

Fish, 28, sidelined most of the second half of last season due to a fractured rib and left knee surgery, will face No. 2 Novak Djokovic of Serbia, who won that 2008 final in three sets and is 3-0 against him.

“I feel like I can beat him but I haven’t,” Fish said of Djokovic. And for a while against Berrer, it didn’t look as if he’d get to try again.

Italy's Roberta Vinci booked a second-round clash with two-time champion Daniela Hantuchova of Slovakia with a 3-6, 6-3, 6-0 victory over rising US teen star Melanie Oudin at the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, California, on Thursday.

Unheralded American Sloane Stephens, 16, booked a second-round match with defending champion and 12th seed Vera Zvonareva of Russia.

Stephens, ranked 747th in the world, beat Czech Lucie Hradecka 7-6 (7/5), 7-6 (9/7).

While men's first-round action continues on Friday, the women's second round gets under way.

In the third tournament of her comeback from retirement, the Belgian player wins her first-round match at Indian Wells over Magdalena Rybarikova, 6-2, 6-2.

Novak Djokovic climbed to a career-high second in the world rankings last month but the Serb is reluctant to dream about usurping Roger Federer at the top.

Djokovic prefers instead to reflect on the consistency he has produced at the highest level over the last three years and is prepared to bide his time.

“I try not to think about that (the top ranking) too much,” Djokovic told reporters on Thursday while preparing for the Indian Wells ATP tournament, an event he won in 2008, two months after his Australian Open triumph.

If American qualifier Tim Smyczek was supposed to play the role of nervous newcomer on Thursday at the BNP Paribas Open, he failed to receive the memo.

The 22 year old from Milwaukee, who was making his ATP World Tour Masters 1000 debut and playing in just his third tour-level event, held his own against former World No. 1 Carlos Moya before falling 7-6(7), 7-6(5) in two hours and 20 minutes.

She reached finals in the first two tournaments of her Sony Ericsson WTA Tour comeback earlier this year and in the first match of her third tournament she picked up right where she left off. Justine Henin won her opener at the BNP Paribas Open in straight sets Wednesday.