Serena overcomes ump error in win

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

SYDNEY, Australia -- Serena Williams overcame a glaring chair umpiring mistake and a partisan crowd to win her first match of the season, a 6-3, 6-7 (4), 7-5 decision Sunday over Australian Samantha Stosur at the Sydney International.

Last year's U.S. Open champion was serving for the match at 6-5 and 30-30 in the second set when the chair umpire failed to notice an obvious let call when Williams' serve hit the net and into the serving area on Stosur's side of the net. Williams didn't even bother to chase down Stosur's return, believing it to be a certain let.

Stosur was awarded the point and went on to break Williams and won the ensuing tiebreaker. Williams fought off four match points in the 10th game of the third set before breaking Stosur two games later to win the match.

Until Williams' late rally, the American seemed visibly upset by the mistake. She spoke to the umpire Asitha Attigala of Sri Lanka at the end of the game and second set, but didn't argue. At the end of the match, she shook his hand.

The heavily pro-Stosur crowd at the Olympic Park Tennis Centre -- site of the 2000 Olympics tennis program -- chanted "Aussie, Aussie, Aussie, oi, oi, oi," throughout the match and loudly cheered every Stosur point. Williams received only polite applause even on her big points.

The last time the two played, Williams beat Stosur in straight sets at the Beijing Olympics in August, when Stosur only won two games.

Williams, ranked No. 2 and last year's U.S. Open winner, pulled out of the WTA Championships last November and later from the U.S. team for the Hopman Cup in Perth, Australia, due to a lingering hamstring injury. She arrived in Australia this week saying she was injury-free.

In another match Sunday, former U.S. Open champion Svetlana Kuznetsova of Russia, the fifth seed here, also needed three sets to beat China's Peng Shuai, advancing to the second round with a 3-6, 6-1, 6-3 win.

Second-seeded Dinara Safina of Russia, a losing finalist at the Hopman Cup team event with her brother Marat Safin against Slovakia, plays Sorana Cirstea of Romania in the first round Monday.

.In the joint ATP-WTA tournament, top-seeded Novak Djokovic and third-seeded Jo-Wilfried Tsonga both have received first-round men's byes and could meet in the semifinals. Djokovic beat Tsonga in last year's Australian Open final.

The pick of the men's first-round matches has defending champion Dmitry Tursunov, a California-based Russian, playing Richard Gasquet of France. The winner will play second-seeded Gilles Simon of France, who also has a first-round bye along with No. 4 David Nalbandian of Argentina.

Four-time Sydney men's champion and former world No. 1 Lleyton Hewitt, an unseeded wild card now ranked 68, drew a qualifier in the first round.

There were no first-round men's matches Sunday.