Wimbledon champion Venus Williams crashed out of the Australian Open on Monday, joining ninth seed Elena Dementieva as a first-round flop, as sister Serena narrowly avoided the same fate.
It was the former world number one’s worst performance since she exited the French Open at the opening hurdle in 2001 and only the third time in 34 grand-slam appearances that she has failed so spectacularly.
In contrast, women’s top seed Lindsay Davenport, who won here in 2000, coasted into the second round with an easy 6-2, 6-1 workout against Australian wild card Casey Dellacqua.
Russian fourth seed Maria Sharapova and her compatriot Nadia Petrova, seeded six, also sailed through, as did Justine Henin-Hardenne, who looks in ominous form after winning the Sydney International warm-up tournament.
Serena, seeded 13, was given a testing workout by China’s Li Na before the defending champion used her experience to grind out a 6-3, 6-7 (1/7), 6-2 victory.
”I just lost it basically, I didn’t do what I needed to do and Li played some great shots and she started hitting winners on the back court and I don’t know what I did really,” said Serena. ”Everyone chokes; I choked today.”
There was also a fright for the men’s fourth seed David Nalbandian, who was taken to five sets by Thai qualifier Danai Udomchoke before emerging victorious, 6-2, 6-2, 1-6, 6-7 (4/7), 6-1 after a gruelling three-and-a-half hours.
Venus, the 10th seed, made an astonishing 65 unforced errors in a marathon 2-6, 6-0, 9-7 loss to Bulgarian teenager Tszvetana Pironkova, who is seen as one of the tour’s rising stars.
Questions have been raised about Venus’s commitment to tennis with a budding career in the fashion world beckoning, but she insisted she wants to get back to her best.
”I just seemed to get to a point there, I just couldn’t pull my game together. Just I don’t know what happened. I don’t know,” said the dejected five-time grand-slam champion.
”So I’m really disappointed, but I feel like in general, I was in good form. I just somehow fell off my form.
”But it’s the beginning of the year, and I feel like I still have a lot of success ahead of me. It’s just my first event.”
The reward for Pironkova, who jumped from 295 to 94 in the world rankings last year, is a second-round showdown against Laura Granville of the United States.
Dementieva fared little better than Williams and will be hugely disappointed with her performance, serving up 12 double faults before succumbing to Germany’s Julia Schruff, ranked 80, 7-5, 6-2 under the searing Melbourne sun.
The Russian, who reached two grand-slam finals in 2004, has now failed to get past the fourth round here in eight attempts.
Davenport is fancied by many to lift the title here with injury hampering Kim Clijsters, but said she was nervous as she began her 13th Australian Open before quickly settling into her rhythm.
”I was jumping around, ready to go,” she said. ”I feel like I have the ability to play well and hopefully repeat what happened last year, and go better,” she added, referring to her loss in the final here to Serena Williams. She next plays Karolina Sprem of Croatia.
Sharapova made short work of Germany’s Sandra Kloesel, winning 6-2, 6-1 despite still recovering from injury to set up a second-round encounter with American qualifier Ashley Harkleroad.
Henin-Hardenne pounded Poland’s Marta Domachowska 6-2, 6-1.
In the men’s draw, Nalbandian of Argentina, one of the few players to beat Roger Federer last year, considered himself lucky to survive against Danai.
”It’s not the best way to start, but it is good always to win,” he said. ”I try to do everything. But it wasn’t enough to finish it in three sets.”
Eighth-seeded Gaston Gaudio of Argentina is also through, as is 13th seed Robby Ginepri and 11th seed David Ferrer, but 1997 finalist Carlos Moya was sent packing.
Second seed Andy Roddick was taking on Swiss qualifier Michael Lammer in the second night match. Federer plays on Tuesday. — Sapa-AFP
Melbourne, Australia
Australian Open
VENUS CRASHES OUT OF AUSTRALIAN OPEN AS SERENA NARROWLY AVOIDS SAME
Wimbledon champion Venus Williams crashed out of the Australian Open on Monday, joining ninth seed Elena Dementieva as a first-round flop, as sister Serena narrowly avoided the same fate.
It was the former world number one’s worst performance since she exited the French Open at the opening hurdle in 2001 and only the third time in 34 grand-slam appearances that she has failed so spectacularly.
In contrast, women’s top seed Lindsay Davenport, who won here in 2000, coasted into the second round with an easy 6-2, 6-1 workout against Australian wild card Casey Dellacqua.
Russian fourth seed Maria Sharapova and her compatriot Nadia Petrova, seeded six, also sailed through, as did Justine Henin-Hardenne, who looks in ominous form after winning the Sydney International warm-up tournament.
Serena, seeded 13, was given a testing workout by China’s Li Na before the defending champion used her experience to grind out a 6-3, 6-7 (1/7), 6-2 victory.
”I just lost it basically, I didn’t do what I needed to do and Li played some great shots and she started hitting winners on the back court and I don’t know what I did really,” said Serena. ”Everyone chokes; I choked today.”
There was also a fright for the men’s fourth seed David Nalbandian, who was taken to five sets by Thai qualifier Danai Udomchoke before emerging victorious, 6-2, 6-2, 1-6, 6-7 (4/7), 6-1 after a gruelling three-and-a-half hours.
Venus, the 10th seed, made an astonishing 65 unforced errors in a marathon 2-6, 6-0, 9-7 loss to Bulgarian teenager Tszvetana Pironkova, who is seen as one of the tour’s rising stars.
Questions have been raised about Venus’s commitment to tennis with a budding career in the fashion world beckoning, but she insisted she wants to get back to her best.
”I just seemed to get to a point there, I just couldn’t pull my game together. Just I don’t know what happened. I don’t know,” said the dejected five-time grand-slam champion.
”So I’m really disappointed, but I feel like in general, I was in good form. I just somehow fell off my form.
”But it’s the beginning of the year, and I feel like I still have a lot of success ahead of me. It’s just my first event.”
The reward for Pironkova, who jumped from 295 to 94 in the world rankings last year, is a second-round showdown against Laura Granville of the United States.
Dementieva fared little better than Williams and will be hugely disappointed with her performance, serving up 12 double faults before succumbing to Germany’s Julia Schruff, ranked 80, 7-5, 6-2 under the searing Melbourne sun.
The Russian, who reached two grand-slam finals in 2004, has now failed to get past the fourth round here in eight attempts.
Davenport is fancied by many to lift the title here with injury hampering Kim Clijsters, but said she was nervous as she began her 13th Australian Open before quickly settling into her rhythm.
”I was jumping around, ready to go,” she said. ”I feel like I have the ability to play well and hopefully repeat what happened last year, and go better,” she added, referring to her loss in the final here to Serena Williams. She next plays Karolina Sprem of Croatia.
Sharapova made short work of Germany’s Sandra Kloesel, winning 6-2, 6-1 despite still recovering from injury to set up a second-round encounter with American qualifier Ashley Harkleroad.
Henin-Hardenne pounded Poland’s Marta Domachowska 6-2, 6-1.
In the men’s draw, Nalbandian of Argentina, one of the few players to beat Roger Federer last year, considered himself lucky to survive against Danai.
”It’s not the best way to start, but it is good always to win,” he said. ”I try to do everything. But it wasn’t enough to finish it in three sets.”
Eighth-seeded Gaston Gaudio of Argentina is also through, as is 13th seed Robby Ginepri and 11th seed David Ferrer, but 1997 finalist Carlos Moya was sent packing.
Second seed Andy Roddick was taking on Swiss qualifier Michael Lammer in the second night match. Federer plays on Tuesday. — Sapa-AFP