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Czech teen shocks Venus

Amelie Mauresmo of France returns the ball to Medina Garrigues of Spain during the Dubai Championships in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, on Tuesday. PHOTO: EPA

Top seed and defending champion Venus Williams was upset in the opening round of the Cellular South Cup by qualifier Petra Kvitova 2-6, 6-4, 6-3 on Tuesday.

The 17-year-old Kvitova earned only her second WTA Tour win of her career, stunning Williams, the winner of four Wimbledon titles.

"I am very happy," said Kvitova, of the Czech Republic. "It is the biggest [moment] of my life."

Williams followed the No. 2 seed, Tatiana Golovin, out of the tournament. Earlier, Golovin was beaten by US player Bethanie Mattek 6-4, 6-4.

After winning the second set, Kvitova took charge midway through the final set. In the fifth game, she had two break points against Williams.

Williams saved the first one with a forehand winner, but Kvitova recovered and followed with a forehand volley winner to go up 3-2.

She closed the match with another break, sending a forehand volley winner past Williams before a stunned crowd.

"She had a good serve and she was left-handed," Williams said. "She mixed it up really well. I'm not happy about the result of the match, but she played well."

Petra Kvitova of the Czech Republic celebrates her upset victory over Venus Williams of the US in Memphis, Tennessee, on Tuesday. PHOTO: EPA

Playing in only her 14th career WTA match, Kvitova, ranked 143rd, matched Williams' power with punishing groundstrokes of her own. Williams was hampered by six double faults, including five in the second set.

"I just made some mistakes," Williams said. "I definitely had more errors than I wanted."

In the other upset, Mattek, ranked 131st, played one of the best matches of her career.

"Honestly, I was really seeing the ball really well and I was there to every shot she hit," Mattek said. "I just stuck to my game plan. My goal was to get on top and get as many points right away as I could. I just came out firing."

Avoiding the upsets was third-seeded Shahar Peer of Israel, runner-up to Williams last year. Peer beat US player Ahsha Rolle 6-2, 6-1.

In the men's division -- the Regions Morgan Keegan Championships -- Thomas Johansson edged Marat Safin 7-6 (5), 7-6 (2) again in their first ATP match since the 2002 Australian Open final.

Johansson hit 18 aces to Safin's dozen and the pair of Grand Slam winners lost serve only once each in the 102-minute thriller.

Victor Hanescu of Romania defeated Lu Yen-hsun (盧彥勳) of Taiwan, 6-3, 2-1. Lu retired.

■ CHAKVETADZE RECOVERS

AP, DUBAI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES

Sixth-ranked Anna Chakvetadze ended a two-match losing streak when she beat in-form Polish star Agnieszka Radwanska 6-2, 2-6, 6-4 in the Dubai Championships first round on Tuesday.

Australian Open champion Maria Sharapova withdrew with a viral illness, while former champion and No. 1 Amelie Mauresmo advanced.

Chakvetadze hadn't won a match since claiming her seventh career title at the Paris Indoors at the start of the month, and faced a strong challenge from Radwanska who in her last events won at Pattaya City and reached the semi-finals in Doha but had to qualify here.

Unseeded Mauresmo, the 2002 champion and last year's runner-up, struggled to beat Spanish qualifier Anabel Medina Garrigues 7-6 (7), 6-2, and crowd favorite Mirza overcame a shaky start against Vera Dushevina of Russia before winning 7-6 (5), 6-2.

Seventh-seeded Marion Bartoli of France was knocked out by Francesca Schiavone of Italy 6-1, 6-7 (5), 6-1.

Scheduled fifth seed Sharapova withdrew with a viral illness that she said she'd carried through her run in Doha, where she won her 18th career title on Sunday. Her place in the main draw was taken by Japan's Akiko Morigami, who made full use of her good fortune by seeing off Hungarian Agnes Szavay 6-1, 6-4.

■ FIVE CROATS ADVANCE

AP, ZAGREB

Top-seeded Ivan Ljubicic led five Croats into the second round of the PBZ Zagreb Indoors with only countryman and second-seeded Ivo Karlovic losing his opener on Tuesday.

Ljubicic, the 2006 champion and last year's runner-up, hit 13 aces and broke serve only once in beating Ernests Gulbis of Latvia 6-3, 7-6 (7).

Karlovic was upset by 209th-ranked Sergiy Stakhovsky of Ukraine 4-6, 7-6 (5), 6-2 but it was the only blemish on a banner day for the home players.

Fifth-seeded Marin Cilic beat Guillermo Garcia-Lopez of Spain 6-2, 6-2, former top-10 player Mario Ancic ousted sixth-seeded Nicolas Mahut 7-6 (3), 7-6 (6) and two wild cards were winners, Lovro Zovko against Marc Gicquel of France 6-3, 7-5, and Roko Karanusic over Blaz Kavcic of Slovenia 6-7 (9), 6-4, 6-4.

Ljubicic will play Zovko in the second round.

Also, third-seeded Gilles Simon of France beat Pavol Cervenak of Slovakia 7-6 (2), 6-1.

Other winners included Rik de Voest of South Africa, an upset winner over seventh-seeded Andreas Seppi 6-4, 7-6 (3), Teimuraz Gabashvili of Russia, Viktor Troicki of Serbia, Robin Haase of the Netherlands and Denis Gremelmayr of Germany.
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