HILTON HEAD ISLAND. South Carolina, Apr 3: Second seed and defending champion Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario. looking to end a lengthy title drought, made a happy return to clay-courts with a second-round victory at the Family Circle Cup women's tennis tournament on Wednesday, reports Reuter.

The Spaniard, who has disappointing 7-6 on hard-courts this year, breezed to a 6-2. 6-2 win over Sarah Pitkowski of France in her opening match after receiving a first-round bye.

"I love to play on clay. It's my favourite surface." said Sanchez, who has not claimed a title since the Hamburg Open 11 months ago. despfte reaching several finals since.

'This is the first tournament and it just started, so I'm looking forward to having a great season on clay," said the former French Open champion, who next faces 13th-seeded South African Amanda Coetzer.

Third seed Jana Novotna's transition to clay did not go as smoothly, the Czech veteran was facing early elimination but battled back for a 3-6, 7-5. 6-1 victory over Switzerland's Patty Schnyder in another second round match.

Novotna was down 3-5 in the second set and had to break Schnyder while the Swiss was serving for the match at 4-5 before assuming control.

“I said if she wants to win this match, let’s see how well she can finish it off, and see what happened." said.Novotna, who reeled off seven consecutive games and 10 of the last 11 to finish off the match.

Fourth seed Monica Seles, in

just, her second .tournament -.of the year, played, the qqfyjthird round match Wednesday and advanced with a 6-2, 7-6 win over Czech Adriana Gersl.

Seles, who reached the Lit-pon Championships final last week, fell behind early In the

second set but took the tiebreak 7-4.

"I think mostly my serve let me down in today's match, especially in the second set," said Seles, who awaits the winner of Thursday's third-rounder between seventh seed Anke Huber of Germany and ninth seed Iva Majoli of Croatia.

Huber destroyed American Lisa Raymond, losing just two games, while Majoli needed three sets to oust Romanian Ruxandra Dragomir 3-6, 6-4. 6-

Sixth-seeded American Lindsay Davenport overwhelmed South African Mari-

annide. Swardt,6-2, 6-0 In another second rqpnd match, and unseeded Jennifer Capriati, who upset Mary Joe Fernandez in the first round, crushed Japan's. Ai Sugiyama to move into the third round.