Spears Falls Short Against Schiavone

Italy's Francesca Schiavone kept local wildcard entrant Abigail Spears on the defensive for much of their 57-minute match and advanced to the second round of the Acura Classic with a 6-3, 6-2 victory on Stadium Court at the La Costa Resort and Spa.

Schiavone capitalized on one service break in the first set to take a 5-2 lead and went on to serve out the set which took 25 minutes.

The Italian opened the second set with a service break and went on to build a 5-1 lead as she lost only four points in three service games to that point.

With the crowd cheering her on to stay in the match, Spears struggled to hold serve and managed to survive a 12-point game to make the second-set score 5-2.

As Schiavone served for the match, she put away a short ball for a winner and then hit a service winner for a 30-0 lead. She reached match point when she slammed her third ace of the match past Spears.

On match point, Schiavone crushed an overhead for yet another winner to seal her victory over Spears.

• Schiavone will play the winner of the Anastassia Rodionova / Samantha Stosur match in the second round.
• Schiavone is ranked 28 in the world.
• Schiavone is playing in her fourth Acura Classic.
• This was the first meeting between Schiavone and Spears.
• Schiavone improves her 2005 match record to 17-14.
• Spears is ranked 80 in the world.
• Spears was playing in her second Acura Classic. She lost in qualifying in 2001. Spears'
• 2005 match record is 6-14.

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