San Frncisco, CA -- Top-ranked Kim Clijsters was stunned by Russian Lina Krasnoroutskaya in Thursday's third-round action at the Rogers AT&T Cup tennis event.
The top-seeded Clijsters appeared unbeatable in a 17-minute first set on Day 4, but Krasnoroutskaya roared back for an unlikely 1-6, 6-4, 6-1 victory over the French Open runner-up.
Second-seeded Justine Henin-Hardenne, who beat Clijsters for the French Open crown, moved on with a 6-3, 7-5 victory over Nadia Petrova.
Clijsters was fresh off her hardcourt title in Carson, California, where she beat Lindsay Davenport in the final and became the first-ever Belgian to claim the No. 1 ranking.
The 20-year-old Clijsters scalded Italian Francesca Schiavone 6-1, 6-2 in her first match here Wednesday night and had won 18-of-22 games in her first three sets in Toronto before a fatigue-induced collapse against the 19-year-old Krasnoroutskaya, the 1999 ITF junior world champion.
"I just ran out of batteries in the second and third," said Clijsters, who was playing in her fifth tournament in five weeks.
Clijsters had won six straight and 14-of-15 matches, including a title in Stanford, before running into Krasnoroutskaya. The amicable Belgian supplanted Serena Williams atop the world rankings this week, despite never winning a Grand Slam event while Serena has won five of the last six majors.
The hard-hitting Clijsters had reached at least the semifinals in all of her previous tournaments this season and leads the WTA Tour with six titles in 15 events in 2003.
Henin-Hardenne has five WTA victories this year, including a triumph over Clijsters in the final of the Acura Classic in San Diego two weeks ago.
On Thursday, Henin-Hardenne lost only three points on her serve in the first set and broke Petrova twice. The Russian battled back in the second set and held a 5-4 lead, but Henin-Hardenne used a pair of breaks to win the final three games of the match.
Next up for Henin-Hardenne will be another Russian, Elena Bovina. The 12th- seeded Bovina knocked off seventh-seeded South African Amanda Coetzer 6-2, 6-1.
Third-seeded and defending Rogers AT&T Cup champion Amelie Mauresmo of France avoided an upset by pasting Colombian Fabiola Zuluaga 6-4, 6-2. Mauresmo's quarterfinal opponent will be tough Russian Elena Dementieva, who dumped fifth-seeded fellow Russian Anastasia Myskina 2-6, 6-1, 6-1.
Mauresmo, seeing her first action in two months after being sidelined with a rib injury, captured this event in Montreal last year by beating American Jennifer Capriati in the marquee final.
Also on Thursday, Argentine Paola Suarez trounced fourth-seeded struggling Slovakian Daniela Hantuchova 6-2, 6-0 and 10th-seeded Russian Vera Zvonareva zipped past eighth-seeded Yugoslavian Jelena Dokic 6-3, 6-2. Zvonareva and Suarez will tangle here on Friday.
Another result saw Slovenian Katarina Srebotnik tame Spaniard Magui Serna 6-1, 7-6 (7-4) at the National Tennis Centre at York University. Srebotnik will face the upstart Krasnoroutskaya on Friday.
The winner of this $1.325 hardcourt tournament will take home $192,000.
http://www.news4jax.com/tennis/2407208/detail.html
The top-seeded Clijsters appeared unbeatable in a 17-minute first set on Day 4, but Krasnoroutskaya roared back for an unlikely 1-6, 6-4, 6-1 victory over the French Open runner-up.
Second-seeded Justine Henin-Hardenne, who beat Clijsters for the French Open crown, moved on with a 6-3, 7-5 victory over Nadia Petrova.
Clijsters was fresh off her hardcourt title in Carson, California, where she beat Lindsay Davenport in the final and became the first-ever Belgian to claim the No. 1 ranking.
The 20-year-old Clijsters scalded Italian Francesca Schiavone 6-1, 6-2 in her first match here Wednesday night and had won 18-of-22 games in her first three sets in Toronto before a fatigue-induced collapse against the 19-year-old Krasnoroutskaya, the 1999 ITF junior world champion.
"I just ran out of batteries in the second and third," said Clijsters, who was playing in her fifth tournament in five weeks.
Clijsters had won six straight and 14-of-15 matches, including a title in Stanford, before running into Krasnoroutskaya. The amicable Belgian supplanted Serena Williams atop the world rankings this week, despite never winning a Grand Slam event while Serena has won five of the last six majors.
The hard-hitting Clijsters had reached at least the semifinals in all of her previous tournaments this season and leads the WTA Tour with six titles in 15 events in 2003.
Henin-Hardenne has five WTA victories this year, including a triumph over Clijsters in the final of the Acura Classic in San Diego two weeks ago.
On Thursday, Henin-Hardenne lost only three points on her serve in the first set and broke Petrova twice. The Russian battled back in the second set and held a 5-4 lead, but Henin-Hardenne used a pair of breaks to win the final three games of the match.
Next up for Henin-Hardenne will be another Russian, Elena Bovina. The 12th- seeded Bovina knocked off seventh-seeded South African Amanda Coetzer 6-2, 6-1.
Third-seeded and defending Rogers AT&T Cup champion Amelie Mauresmo of France avoided an upset by pasting Colombian Fabiola Zuluaga 6-4, 6-2. Mauresmo's quarterfinal opponent will be tough Russian Elena Dementieva, who dumped fifth-seeded fellow Russian Anastasia Myskina 2-6, 6-1, 6-1.
Mauresmo, seeing her first action in two months after being sidelined with a rib injury, captured this event in Montreal last year by beating American Jennifer Capriati in the marquee final.
Also on Thursday, Argentine Paola Suarez trounced fourth-seeded struggling Slovakian Daniela Hantuchova 6-2, 6-0 and 10th-seeded Russian Vera Zvonareva zipped past eighth-seeded Yugoslavian Jelena Dokic 6-3, 6-2. Zvonareva and Suarez will tangle here on Friday.
Another result saw Slovenian Katarina Srebotnik tame Spaniard Magui Serna 6-1, 7-6 (7-4) at the National Tennis Centre at York University. Srebotnik will face the upstart Krasnoroutskaya on Friday.
The winner of this $1.325 hardcourt tournament will take home $192,000.
http://www.news4jax.com/tennis/2407208/detail.html
