Chakvetadze keeps focus

MELBOURNE, Australia -- Amid the marathons and mini-series, also known as tennis matches, was this nugget of a first round Tuesday at the Australian Open.

Six points in three minutes transpired between sixth-seeded Anna Chakvetadze and 20-year-old Andrea Petkovic of Germany before Petkovic retired because of an injured right knee.

“I think about tennis right now, trying not to think about things that happened with me and my family,” said Chakvetadze, a semifinalist at the U.S. Open in 2007, in an interview later.

She was referring to a frightening crime in which Chakvetadze, her parents and 9-year-old brother were the victims of an armed robbery at home in Moscow in December. Reports said her father was pistol-whipped and she was tied up by the masked men, and approximately $250,000 in cash and items were taken.

It was not revealed at the time that she was injured, but the Russian star hurt a finger on her left hand and was unable to practice for almost a week. There has not been any suggestion it was linked to Russian mafia extortion efforts.

“If I think about it more, I wouldn’t be ready to play,” she said. “I don’t think to move to another country but maybe to move to another place. But now we have everything. We have a bodyguard in the house, alarm, everything. Before it happened, we just had security on the gate.

”. . . You can’t control those things. It can happen to anyone. It happened to me. It’s a good thing we were all together. It could have been worse.”

In featured matches after press time, former champion and No. 7 Venus Williams played Yan Zi of China, followed by No. 1 Roger Federer against Diego Hartfield of Argentina. For results, go to www.latimes.com/sports.

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Back to the future

Day 3 highlights: There could be a lot of waiting around for Serena Williams to play today, because her second-round match follows Mardy Fish-Tommy Robredo on the second show court here.

Fish-Robredo has the potential to turn into an endless battle. Then again, almost any match involving Robredo falls into that category. At least Williams will have time to work on her blog.

Action begins at 4 p.m. PST.

After midnight, L.A. time, will be the most eagerly awaited women’s match of the event: last year’s finalist Maria Sharapova of Russia against new mother and former champion Lindsay Davenport.

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Yank, not Jankovic, watch

The early going on Day 2 was not kind to the American women. Exiting in rapid-fire succession were Vania King of Long Beach, Laura Granville and Meilen Tu. The three of them combined to win one set (Tu, against Maria Kirilenko).

On the men’s side, there was a winner before dinner time here, only because two Americans played one another in the first round: Qualifier Amer Delic defeated Robert Kendrick, 6-4, 7-5, 6-2.

Another qualifier, Rajeev Ram, playing in his first Australian Open, squandered a two-sets-to-one lead against Simon Bolelli of Italy. Bolelli won, 7-6 (5), 3-6, 4-6, 6-2, 6-3, in 3 hours 9 minutes.

Delic was later joined by 20-year-old Sam Querrey of Thousand Oaks. Querrey, who reached the third round here last year, defeated Olivier Rochus of Belgium, 6-3, 6-2, 7-5.

Querrey-Rochus was notable for this fact: Querrey, at 6 feet 6, stands a foot taller than Rochus.

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Quote of the day

There’s always a certain Novak Djokovic of Serbia, who spoke about his newly hatched heartthrob status, along the lines of Federer and Andy Roddick.

“I’ve seen lots of signs, ‘Marry Me Roger,’ and ‘Mrs. Roddick.’ But I’ve never seen me,” Djokovic said in his on-court interview following his 6-0, 6-2, 7-6 (5) first-round victory against Benjamin Becker.

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lisa.dillman@latimes.com