Beijing, China (Sports Network) - World No. 1 Dinara Safina and former top- ranked star Venus Williams were a pair of second-round upset victims Monday at the $4.5 million China Open.
The French Open and Aussie Open runner-up Safina, who piled up 13 double faults, was stunned by Chinese qualifier Shuai Zhang 7-5, 7-6 (7-5), while the third-seeded Wimbledon runner-up Venus, who tallied 12 double faults, was ousted by promising 18-year-old Russian Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, for a second time in the last week, 3-6, 6-1, 6-4 on the hardcourts at the Olympic Green Tennis Center.
"I woke up this morning feeling really excited, but didn't do any special preparation and never expected to win the match," said the 226th-ranked Zhang after she dismissed the struggling Safina, who will lose her world No. 1 ranking if No. 2 Serena Williams wins here on Tuesday.
Safina has now dropped three-of-four and five of her last eight matches, while Venus has lost three of her last four outings.
Sixth-seeded 2008 Beijing runner-up Svetlana Kuznetsova avoided an upset by blasting Spaniard Anabel Medina Garrigues 6-2, 6-1 on Day 3 here. The 2006 China Open champion and 2004 runner-up Kuznetsova, who lost to Serbian Jelena Jankovic in last year's finale here, is the reigning French Open champ.
One other seeded winner on Monday was No. 16 Chinese Li Na, who overcame Czech Lucie Safarova 4-6, 6-0, 6-4.
Additional second-round action saw Ukrainian Alona Bondarenko drill Italian Sara Errani 6-3, 6-3 and Canadian Aleksandra Wozniak hold off France's Alize Cornet 7-6 (7-0), 6-4.
A seeded first-round winner on Day 3 was Russian Nadia Petrova, who snuck past qualifier compatriot Alla Kudryavtseva 6-1, 5-7, 6-2.
Other opening-round victors were Slovakian Daniela Hantuchova, Russian Alisa Kleybanova, Italian Francesca Schiavone and American lucky-loser Vania King. Kleybanova surprised wild card and U.S. Open semifinalist Yanina Wickmayer, of Belgium, 5-7, 6-3, 6-3.
The second round will conclude with 10 matches here on Tuesday, including ones for the second-seeded Serena, fourth-seeded Elena Dementieva and an eighth-seeded Jankovic. The former world No. 1 Aussie Open and Wimbledon champion Serena, who captured this Chinese tournament five years ago, will meet Russian Ekaterina Makarova, while the 2008 Beijing Olympic gold medalist Dementieva will encounter Hungarian Melinda Czink and the former top-ranked and reigning Beijing titlist Jankovic will take on China's Peng Shuai. Jankovic was a runner-up here in 2007.
Jankovic was last week's Japan Open runner-up to Maria Sharapova.
Another quality second-rounder on Day 4 will pit ninth-seeded Belarusian Victoria Azarenka against the former No. 1 Sharapova.
The 2009 Beijing champion will collect a whopping $775,500.
10/05 11:28:47 ET
Grand Prix de SAR La Princesse Lalla Meryem
Fès, Morocco
April 27-May 3, 2009
$220,000/International
Red Clay/Outdoors
Miami
March 25, 2009
Anastasia Fights
Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova battled back from triple match point down.
MIAMI, FL, USA - The players on the bottom half of the Sony Ericsson Open draw played first rounds on Wednesday, but for one Indian Wells standout it was anything but easy on Day 1 of the $4.5-million event.
Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, who was the tournament darling in the desert at the BNP Paribas Open last week, trailed qualifier Aravane Rezai in one of Wednesday's later matches, 64 53, and even faced triple match point in that game as the hard-hitting Frenchwoman tried to serve out the match. But the 17-year-old Russian reeled off nine points in a row to even the second set at 5-5, going on to steal a 46 75 63 victory with a routine third and deciding set.
At Indian Wells, Pavlyuchenkova came out of relative obscurity to make her first Sony Ericsson WTA Tour singles semifinal at one of the most prestigious events there is, notching her first two Top 10 wins - over Jelena Jankovic and Agnieszka Radwanska - along the way. She would fall to Ana Ivanovic in the round of four.
Although Pavlyuchenkova, at No.27, was by far the highest-ranked player to take the courts on Wednesday, three former Top 10 players who are recovering their rankings were in action too. Nicole Vaidisova, who made it as high as No.7 in the world in 2007, beat qualifier Patricia Mayr, 64 62; Daniela Hantuchova, who made it up to No.5 in 2003, rallied past wildcard Melanie Oudin, 46 63 62; and Jelena Dokic, a former world No.4 and a wildcard herself here, edged Edina Gallovits, 63 76(5). Vaidisova, Hantuchova and Dokic are currently No.71, No.43 and No.80.
Other winners were Maria Kirilenko, Samantha Stosur, Magdalena Rybarikova, Lucie Safarova, Francesca Schiavone, Mathilde Johansson, Galina Voskoboeva, Nuria Llagostera Vives, qualifiers Tamira Paszek, Anastasiya Yakimova and Mariya Koryttseva and wildcard Anastasia Pivovarova.
Indian Wells
Pavlyuchenkova Keeps On Winning; Ivanovic Next
INDIAN WELLS, CA, USA - Ana Ivanovic and Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova made the semifinals of the BNP Paribas Open Thursday, but they passed their quarterfinal tests in much different fashion.
Pavlyuchenkova was the first to advance to the final four, pulling off another big upset with a 76(8) 64 victory over No.7 seed Agnieszka Radwanska. Pavlyuchenkova, who took out No.2 seed Jelena Jankovic in the second round, saved two set points down 6-5 and 7-6 in the tie-break to take the all-important opening set.
"I thought about previous matches against her and just tried to avoid all of the mistakes I made before," Pavlyuchenkova said. "The last time I played her was at Wimbledon last year. I think my game has improved a lot since then. I'm also more confident now. All these things, all these elements came together this time. Maybe this was just the time to beat her. I'm very happy about this win."
Pavlyuchenkova's win over the No.3-ranked Jankovic over the weekend was her first Top 10 win, and her win over No.10-ranked Radwanska was her second Top 10 win. This will also be her first singles semifinal on the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour.
"It's my first time in the semis, so I'm very happy," Pavlyuchenkova said. "I've played Agnieszka five or six times already so I'm so happy I beat her. She's a very tough player for me. The way she plays and all of our matches are tough. But today I just thought I don't care about the result, I'll just play my game."
:) :) :)
Jankovic falls to surprise defeat
Jankovic claims every part of her game needs an overhaul |
Former world number one Jelena Jankovic was dumped out of Indian Wells WTA event in the second round.
The Serbian second seed was well below her best as she lost 6-4 6-4 to 17-year-old Anastasia Pavyluchenkova.
In another shock, third seed Elena Dementieva was knocked out by qualifier Petra Cetkovska 7-6 (7-2) 2-6 6-1.
Fifth seed Ana Ivanovic opened her title defence with a 6-4 6-3 second round victory over Belarusian qualifier Anastasiya Yakimova.
Reigning champion Ivanovic's chances of retaining the title received a huge boost with Jankovic and Dementieva crashing out.
Jankovich admitted her whole game needed an overhaul after she lost to Russian world number 42 Pavyluchenkova.
"I'm not at my level. That's the case. I'm trying to find that game and trying to come back into the form. But I'm struggling at the moment," Jankovic said.
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"I don't feel some of my shots that were my weapons before (are now).
"Overall I think the whole game needs some adjustments and some kind of finding the rhythm and finding the way to construct the points and just find the timing back.
"I mean, overall everything is wrong. I need a lot of work.
"I wish I had a magic wand and could just fix my game and just play awesome tennis again. I would like it to be that way, but sometimes it's not."
"Rising Russian Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova pasted Poland's Marta Domachowska 6-1, 6-3 on Day 2 here. The 17-year-old Pavlyuchenkova will meet former world No. 1 Jelena Jankovic in the round of 64."
One to watch: Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova
By Scott Riley, Tennis Editor
Philadelphia, PA (Sports Network) - Surprise, there's yet another up-and- coming Russian to keep your eye on, and this one would be Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, who's just one of a whopping 11 Russians right now in the women's Top 50.
This 17-year-old rising star currently stands at No. 46 in the world, but that standing will probably change for the better over the next several months. She entered 2008 as the 281st-ranked woman on the planet, and has been climbing steadily ever since.
The Samara, Russia native/Paris resident, who turned pro at the tender age of 14 in December of 2005, reached the third round at Wimbledon this year, when she was still a mere 16 years of age. She entered the Big W as the youngest woman in the field and proceeded to win her first-rounder, in upset fashion, against 17th-seeded Frenchwoman Alize Cornet.
A-Pav's been touted as the best of the very young Russians out there, and after seeing her play a couple of matches myself, I'd certainly have to agree.
Pavlyuchenkova (pronounced pav-lee-oo-CHEN-ko-vuh) is a 5-foot-9, 149-pounder who can flat-out swat the tennis ball. She appeared in three of the four Grand Slam events this past season, getting her feet wet by winning at least one match at all three (4-3 overall), with two of her appearances coming via the qualifier route.
The young baseliner prefers to play on red clay and considers a pulsating forehand down the line as the best shot in her repertoire.
She tallied four ITF (junior circuit) singles titles in '08 and is now prepared to start winning championships at the next level. Pavlyuchenkova landed in a pair of WTA quarterfinals this year, in Palermo and Tokyo, and actually captured a doubles title in Fes, Morocco. And she was a doubles runner-up at the Palermo event.
At the junior level, she captured a trio of Grand Slam singles titles, with the big wins coming at the 2006 Australian and U.S. Opens and the 2007 Aussie Open. The 2006 junior world champ also had a runner-up finish at the '06 French.
Shifting gears.
In the category of "self praise is no praise," I couldn't help but notice that in her WTA bio Anastasia describes herself as funny, unusual and interesting.
Hmm.
Pavlyuchenkova (which I believe in Russian means almost every letter in the alphabet) has been coached by Patrick Mouratoglou since July 2007 and lives and trains at the Mouratoglou Tennis Academy in France. She'll compete in her first-ever Aussie Open main draw next month with designs, perhaps, on reaching the second week.
12/12 13:04:36 ET
