Former finalists Elena Dementieva and Jelena Jankovic were eliminated in successive surprises at the Arthur Ashe Stadium in the US Open on Thursday.
Blinking back tears and ignoring pain, American teenager Melanie Oudin defeated No. 4-ranked Elena Dementieva 5-7, 6-4, 6-3.
Then No. 5 Jelena Jankovic lost 6-3, 6-7 (4/7), 7-6 (8/6) to Yaroslava Shvedova of Kazakhstan in a 2 hour, 40 minute match.
Jankovic reached the final last year, but she said she wasn’t focused on this day — her grandmother died on Wednesday.
“I was very sad and emotionally I was really not on court,” Jankovic said. “I really tried my best to be there and to try to play, but it was really hard.”
The losses by Dementieva and Jankovic mean half of the top 20 seeded women are out of the draw. No. 23 Sabine Lisicki of Germany is also gone, having left in tears as she was taken away in a wheelchair after injuring her ankle at the end of a 6-3, 3-6, 7-5 defeat against Anastasia Rodionova of Australia.
No. 1 Dinara Safina nearly joined the parade of surprising exits, turning in her second poor performance of the week before hanging on to edge 67th-ranked Kristina Barrois of Germany 6-7 (5/7), 6-2, 6-3.
“Another tough day in the office,” said Safina, who double-faulted 15 times, including three in the tie-breaker. “There is no problem in the technique or nothing. Just in my head.”
No seeded men lost on Thursday, when the winners included 2007 runner-up Novak Djokovic and five Americans — No. 5 Andy Roddick, No. 21 James Blake, No. 22 Sam Querrey, 55th-ranked John Isner and 276th-ranked Jesse Witten.
Roddick, the 2003 US Open champion and 2006 runner-up, beat Marc Gicquel of France 6-1, 6-4, 6-4 at night and now takes on the 2.06m Isner.
French Open runner-up Robin Soderling advanced when his opponent, Marcel Granollers, quit during the third game with a back injury.
Djokovic cruised by Australian qualifier Carsten Ball 6-3, 6-4, 6-4. Also advancing were No. 8 seed Nikolay Davydenko, No. 10 Fernando Verdasco of Spain, No. 14 Tommy Robredo of Spain, No. 15 Radek Stepanek of the Czech Republic and No. 20 Tommy Haas of Germany.
On the women’s side, 2004 champion Svetlana Kuznetsova, No. 9 Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark, No. 13 Nadia Petrova of Russia, No. 21 Zheng Jie of China and No. 24 Sorana Cirstea of Romania progressed. No. 19 Patty Schnyder and No. 30 Alona Bondarenko of Ukraine lost.
Oudin, aged 17 and ranked 70th, played most of the third set with a heavy wrap on her left thigh, while cramps briefly reduced her to tears as she headed to the baseline to serve.
“First time playing on Arthur Ashe, I was beating No. 4 in the world, about to beat her,” Oudin said. “Just a little bit of everything. A lot of things were going through my mind.”
The match ended with a loud shriek when she painted the backhand corner with her serve on her third match point.
She set up a third round match against 2006 champion Maria Sharapova, who eliminated another 17-year-old American, Christina McHale 6-2, 6-1 at night. The 381st-ranked McHale was a wild-card entry who didn’t really challenge Sharapova.
Looking ahead to facing Oudin, Sharapova said: “I definitely have to go out there and expect her to play some of her best tennis.”
“I mean, I’ve got a tough round ahead of me,” she said. “Also somebody that I’ve never played against before, someone that’s going to come out and, I’m sure, she’s going to swing and have nothing to lose — which she doesn’t.”
Dementieva, meanwhile, leaves Flushing Meadows with the more accomplished resume — 14 titles, 14 runner-up finishes, more than US$12 million in career earnings — but still in search of her first Grand Slam title. She was the runner-up in 2004.
After Thursday’s loss, Dementieva said she was impressed with America’s new break-out player.
“She was in the court, not afraid to play, playing very aggressively, really enjoying this atmosphere and the crowd support,” she said.
Shvedova met Oudin in the locker room after her win over Jankovic.
“I said: ‘Thanks, you inspired me,’” Shvedova said.
After saving two match points, Shvedova closed out Jankovic in the third-set tie-breaker with her sixth ace after setting up her match point with an overhead slam to end a long rally.
The Williams sisters won their opening doubles 6-2, 6-2 over Julia Goerges of Germany and Arantxa Parra Santonja of Spain, answering the questions about whether Venus would play in that event because of her sore knee.
“I actually felt pretty good today,” Venus said. “I’m going to definitely be in both events.”
In the men’s doubles, Taiwan’s Lu Yen-hsun and Dudi Sela of Israel defeated No. 13 seeds Travis Parrott of the US and Filip Polasek of Slovakia, 3-6, 7-6 (7/2), 6-2.
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