Former world No. 1s Venus Williams and Ana Ivanovic endured a humbling start to the season after the top two seeds were dumped out of the Auckland Classic in the first round by unheralded opponents yesterday.
Russian teenager Daria Kasatkina, ranked 75th in the world, claimed arguably the biggest win of her career in taking out the seven-time Grand Slam singles champion Williams 7-6 (4/7), 3-6, 6-3 in the Australian Open warmup event.
Williams, 35, made more than 70 unforced errors in the scratchy display where she won the title last year to start a standout season that saw her claim the WTA’s Comeback of the Year award after two other tournament wins in China.
Former French Open champion Ivanovic had little answer to the supreme serving of British qualifier Naomi Broady, who racked up 14 aces in a 7-5, 6-4 win.
The 25-year-old from Manchester maintained her first serve percentage at almost 70 as she took out the second seeded Serb to leave the US$250,000 tournament shorn of its headline acts.
Dane Caroline Wozniacki was not at her best on the blue New Zealand hard courts, but avoided making it a hat-trick of first-round exits by former world No. 1s as she beat Danka Kovinic of Montenegro 6-4 6-4.
SHENZHEN OPEN
AFP, BEIJING
Double Wimbledon winner Petra Kvitova went out of the WTA Shenzhen Open in the first round yesterday, retiring hurt in a shock exit for the world No. 6.
The second seed was broken twice as she lost the first set 6-2 against China’s Zheng Saisai — ranked 72 in the world — in 41 minutes, and dropped out before a point was played in the second set.
It was Kvitova’s second consecutive first-round exit in China, after she went out at the first hurdle at the China Open in October — when she played on painkillers while suffering the ongoing effects of glandular fever.
Another unseeded home player also dumped out a higher-ranked player at the US$500,000 tournament, with Britain’s Johanna Konta losing to Wang Qiang.
The fifth seed took the first set against Wang, but eventually went out 6-3, 3-6, 3-6 in 1 hour, 50 minutes.
There were no such problems for the Polish top seed Agnieszka Radwanska, the world No. 5 who won the WTA Finals in Singapore in November last year. She brushed aside Serbia’s Aleksandra Krunic 6-4, 6-3, in little more than an hour.
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