Davenport Is Winner at Open

Lindsay Davenport won her second-round singles match Wednesday and two other players with South Bay ties were winners in their first-round singles matches at the U.S. Open tennis tournament in New York.

Davenport, 17, a former Chadwick High standout playing in her third Open, defeated Patricia Hy of Canada, 6-4, 6-2. Davenport opened Tuesday with a 6-4, 6-2 victory over Wiltrud Probst of Germany.

Davenport will play Amanda Coetzer of South Africa in the third round, scheduled to begin Friday. Coetzer is seeded 15th and is 16th on the Virginia Slims rankings. The unseeded Davenport is 24th. Davenport reached the second round of last year’s Open and lost in the first round in 1991.

Kimberly Po of Rolling Hills advanced with a 6-3, 6-4 victory over Ros Fairbank-Nideffer, a South African who lives in San Diego. Po, ranked 61st, will play Sandra Cacic of Bradenton, Fla., who is not in the top 100, today.

Janet Lee, 16, of Rancho Palos Verdes, who earned a spot in the U.S. Open for winning the U.S. Tennis Assn. girls’ 18-and-under title last month, lost to Tami Whitlinger, 6-1, 6-1.

On the men’s side, former Palos Verdes High standout Pete Sampras meets Daniel Vacek of the Czech Republic on the Stadium Court at 8 a.m. today in a second-round match to be televised by cable’s USA Network. Sampras, who is seeded second, opened with a 6-3, 6-1, 6-2 victory over Fabrice Santoro of France.

Jeff Tarango of Manhattan Beach had to retire from his match against Joao Cunha-Silva of Portugal Tuesday after losing the first two sets, 6-3, 6-1.

Two area players were losers in first-round doubles matches Wednesday. Po and Shannan McCarthy were eliminated by Ingelise Driehuis of the Netherlands and Lopita Novelo of Mexico, 6-7 (7-5), 6-3, 6-0.

Jim Pugh of Palos Verdes and Brent Haygarth of South Africa fell to Tom Nijssen of the Netherlands and Cyril Suk of the Czech Republic, 6-7 (7-3), 6-4, 7-6 (7-3).