TOP seed Ana Ivanovic was stunned at the US Open as she was defeated 6-3, 4-6, 6-3 by Julie Coin in the second round.
Ranked 188th in the word, Frenchwoman Coin recorded eight aces and benefited from 34 unforced errors by Ivanovic to bounce the S
erb from the tournament.
Hampered by a thumb injury that kept her out of the Beijing Olympics, Ivanovic pulled out a 6-1, 4-6, 6-4 victory over Russian Vera Dushevina on Tuesday in the first round.
The 20-year-old Ivanovic is one of three women – along with Jelena Jankovic and Maria Sharapova – to have held the top spot in the rankings since last year's US Open winner, Justine Henin, retired in May.
"I was nervous going onto the court because I never saw (Coin] play before, so I didn't know what to expect," Ivanovic said. "I thought I can slowly get into the match, and she played completely different than I expected. She was serving extremely well and hitting very powerful shots."
Coin played like a seasoned champion at Arthur Ashe Stadium while Ivanovic's play left much to be desired as she double-faulted at key moments of the third set.
Coin's next opponent is her fellow Frenchwoman Amelie Mauresmo, the 32nd seed, who rallied for a 2-6, 6-4, 6-0 triumph over Kaia Kanepi of Estonia.
Serena and Venus Williams both disposed of their second-round opponents at the US Open just as easily as their first. Seventh-seeded Venus needed less than an hour to dispatch Paraguay's Rossana De Los Rios 6-0, 6-3 in the year's final major championship, while No4 seed Serena cruised past Russia's Elena Vesnina 6-1, 6-1.
Seeking her eighth major championship, Venus did not face a break point and converted four of the eight she had en route to the easy win. De Los Rios had no answer to the power of her opponent, who won 81 per cent of points on her first serve and cracked 17 winners.
"I think I just had a lot more power than she did today," Venus said. "She plays a game where she hits a lot of high balls. I think it would be effective against a lot of players, but with my height and my reach, it doesn't faze me as much."
Up next for Venus is Alona Bondarenko of the Ukraine, who defeated German Sabine Lisicki 6-4, 1-6, 6-4 on Thursday.
The 26-year-old Serena seemed to be playing at half speed in this match, especially in the second set, where she took a 5-1 lead but missed an easy winner on her first match point. She jumped up and down as if to reprimand herself for a lack of concentration and eventually battled through two deuces to close out Vesnina under the one-hour mark.
Serena now meets the 30th-seeded Ai Sugiyama of Japan, who ousted Olga Govortsova of Belarus 4-6, 7-6 (7/4), 6-1. A match-up with Venus could come in the quarter-finals.
Russian Dinara Safina, the sixth seed, continued to build off the momentum of her silver-medal performance at the Beijing Olympics when she defeated Italy's Roberta Vinci 6-4, 6-3.
Ninth seed Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland, a quarter-finalist at Wimbledon, defeated Colombia's 19-year-old Mariana Duque Marino 6-0, 7-6 (7/3), while the Russian Nadia Petrova, the 19th seed, also advanced with a 6-4, 6-2 victory over Taiwan's Su-Wei Hsieh.
Two seeded players fell on Thursday, including 20th seed Nicole Vaidisova of the Czech Republic, who was ousted by France's Severine Bremond 7-5, 6-3. And thirteenth seed Agnes Szavay of Hungary was eliminated by Italy's Tathiana Garbin 5-7, 6-2, 6-3.
The second seed Jelena Jankovic came through another bruising battle yesterday, edging past Zheng Jie 7-5, 7-5 to reach the fourth round. The Serbian, chasing her first grand slam title, scrambled into the last 16 after two hours nine minutes and will meet 14th seed Victoria Azarenka of Belarus or Caroline Wozniacki, the Danish 21st seed.
Pushed to three sets in the previous round, Jankovic was again embroiled in a tough encounter against Wimbledon semi-finalist Zheng.
The full article contains 739 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
