Raymond upset in first round of Pan Pacific Open

TOKYO -- Lisa Raymond was eliminated in the first round of the Pan Pacific Open on Tuesday after a strong Australian Open in which she upset Venus Williams.

Raymond downed Bulgaria's Magdalena Maleeva 4-6, 6-2, 6-3. Raymond beat Williams in the third round in the season's first Grand Slam event before losing in the quarterfinals.

Williams and defending champion Lindsay Davenport had first-round byes in Tokyo. Williams will face Japan's Saori Obata in the second round. Obata beat Julia Vakulenko of Ukraine 7-5, 6-3.

Eighth-seeded Daniela Hantuchova of Slovakia outlasted Australia's Alicia Molik 6-1, 6-7 (7-9), 7-5. Hantuchova lost to Molik in the second round of the Australian Open.

"It was very important for me to beat her," Hantuchova said.

In other matches, Laura Granville defeated Russia's Alina Jidkova 7-5, 6-2; Russia's Tatiana Panova scored a 6-4, 6-3 victory over China's Jie Zheng; and Russia's Maria Sharapova downed Japan's Yuka Yoshida 6-1, 6-1.

Hantuchova cruised through the first set and was up 4-1 in the second set. Molik rallied to go up 6-5 and won the tiebreaker 9-7. In the final set, Hantuchova took advantage of unforced errors by Molik and broke serve in the final game.

"I was in control and then fell apart in the second set," Hantuchova said. "I was able to come back and pull it out and the difference this time was attitude and confidence."