Wellington  - Israeli tennis player Shahar Peer will face a shoe-waving protest over her country's invasion of Gaza at the ASB Classic tournament in Auckland on Thursday.

Local activist John Minto, who led a campaign against New Zealand's sporting contacts with apartheid South Africa in the 1970s, said she should withdraw from the tournament to bring attention to the plight of Palestinians.

"She is a high profile figure in Israel, and for her to make a stand would have a significant effect," he told the New Zealand Herald.

Perth, Australia - James Blake converted on only one of his 19 break points, but compensated with 17 aces to pull the US level 1-1 with Germany at the Hopman Cup on Wednesday.

The number ten managed the fightback to defeat Nicolas Kiefer 7-6 (7-3), 6-7 (7-9), 6-4. In the women's rubber, teenaged Sabine Lisicki remained undefeated at the eight-nation event with her 4-6, 6-0, 6-4 defeat of Meghann Shaughnessy.

Auckland - Fitness issues from 2008 came back to haunt local hope Marina Erakovic as the New Zealander fell 6-2, 6-3 to top seed Elena Dementieva in the second round on Wednesday at the ASB Classic.

Erakovic, the number 60 who lost her last seven matches of 2008, needed treatment for abdominal and neck strains with a second-set injury timeout.

Olympic champion Dementieva bucked the upset trend after five of the eight seeds went out in the second round. The Russian faces a Thursday quarter-final with Israeli Shahar Peer.

Chennai: Local fellow Prakash Amirtraj lost his first-round match to German fifth-seeded player Rainer Schuettler 2-6, 6-4, 1-6, even as Rohan Bopanna made his passage to the main draw after winning his final qualifying match in the $450,000 ATP Chennai Open here.

Amritraj had no answers to the tactical play of the German player. From the last seven years, Amritraj has been favoured with a wild card entry for the tournament. From the last few months, the Davis Cupper is being criticized for his continued poor show at the lone ATP event in India.

Auckland - Olympic champion Elena Dementieva had to fight to stop a potential spoiler, erasing an early 5-1 lead in favour of Taiwan's Chan Yung-Jan Chan to post a 7-5, 6-3 victory on Tuesday at the ASB Classic.

Dementieva called her great escape "a tough match."

"She was on fire at the beginning and put a lot of pressure on me. It took me a while to get into the match," she said of her opponent.

The Russian world number four was joined as a straight-sets winner by second seed Caroline Wozniacki as the Dane crushed Italian qualifier Alberta Brianti 6-1, 6-0.

Brisbane, Australia - Novak Djokovic's upcoming defence of his Australian Open title was plunged into disarray on Tuesday as the Serb crashed out 6-4, 6-4 in his opening match at the Brisbane International.

The world number two was upset in his first match of the season and now has no chance to gain ranking ground this week on Roger Federer, who competes in Doha.

Gulbis earned his first win over his former teenage companion at a Munich tennis academy after losing to Djokovic at the French Open and Cincinnati Masters last year.

Djokovic lasted just 88 minutes as he was upset by the world number 53, with Gulbis breaking in the fifth game of the opening set to start his roll to victory.