Former world number one Ana Ivanovic made hard work of her second-round win over Vania King at the LA Women's Tennis Championships in Los Angeles.

The sixth-seeded Serb suffered a mid-match slump but rallied to beat American wildcard King 6-4 4-6 6-1.

She will face either 13th seed Samatha Stosur of Australia or Maria Kirilenko of Russia in the third round.

Russian second seed Vera Zvonareva also struggled before overcoming China's Shuai Peng 3-6 6-3 7-6 (8-6).

Chinese duo Zheng Jie, seeded 14th, and Li Na, seeded 12th, made up for compatriot Peng's brave defeat by sealing their places in the third round.

Zheng defeated Ukraine qualifier Olga Savchuk 7-5 1-6 6-2 while Li advanced when Japan's Ayumi Morita retired after losing the first eight games of their first-round match.

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World number four Elena Dementieva made light work of beating Britain's Anne Keothavong in the first round of the West Classic in California.

The Russian cruised to a 6-1 6-4 victory in her first match since her epic Wimbledon semi-final defeat by Serena Williams earlier this month.

"She played well, definitely felt like my first match in ages," wrote Keothavong on her Twitter webpage.

Maria Sharapova made a winning return, beating Ai Sugiyama 6-4 6-7 (6-8) 6-1.

The Russian is unseeded in the tournament as she continues her comeback from shoulder surgery.

Dementieva is making her debut at the Stanford event, which features five of the top 10 women's players in the world, including both Williams sisters.

The third seed claimed she has shrugged off the disappointment of losing the longest women's semi-final match in recent Wimbledon history and is now concentrating on the hard court season.

World number one Dinara Safina was dumped out of the LA Championships by China's Zheng Jie.

The Russian was beaten 7-5 4-6 6-4 by the 14th seed, who booked her place in the quarter-finals with the win.

Fifth seed Nadia Petrova also went out to Flavia Pennetta as sixth seed Ana Ivanovic lost to Samantha Stosur.

But Maria Sharapova saw off Alona Bondarenko 4-6 6-0 6-3, while second seed Vera Zvonareva beat Yanina Wickmayer 7-6 (7-5) 4-6 6-4.

Eighth seed Agnieszka Radwanska also avoided an upset as she eased to a 6-3 6-2 win over Anna Chakvetadze.

Tenth seed Flavia Pennetta brought Maria Sharapova's run to an end at the LA Championships with a three-set win in Saturday's semi-finals.

The Italian won 6-2 4-6 6-3 after fighting back in the final set as Sharapova struggled on serve.

Australian Sam Stosur made the final after powering past Sorana Cirstea of Romania 6-3 6-2.

Stosur will appear in her fifth career singles final on Sunday as she tries to land her first singles title.

"My whole career I've been trying to get to this point," said Stosur, who was widely regarded as a doubles specialist before a superb recent run of form.

"It kind of looks like I've done it late, but I don't worry too much about that. I took a little longer to develop." Sharapova had been hoping to win her first title since returning to the tour in May after a 10-month lay-off following shoulder surgery, but there were further signs that her remodelled service action is still a problem.

The Russian, wearing tape on her right shoulder for the first time this week, was wildly erratic in her semi-final, making 61 unforced errors and 16 double faults as she let a 3-1 lead slip in the deciding set, and losing her final three service games.

"I didn't feel fresh," said Sharapova. "I was surprised it went to the third and I had my opportunities, but I couldn't close it out."

She added: "It's almost like new territory for me. With every tournament I feel physically I'm getting better and getting a good sense of the court, but it's still a work in progress."

Pennetta, who was runner-up in Los Angeles last year, said: "I was 3-1 down and I was thinking it was over, but I just tried to fight.

"It was a little bit difficult for me. I started to feel a little pressure. She's a great champion, it was not easy to beat her."

She added: "The serve was a problem for both. I was very nervous with my serve because she was returning so well. She started to make a lot of mistakes."

Original news on http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/tennis/8191946.stm