NEW YORK. – Top seed Venus Williams was stunned in the first
round of the Memphis International by Czech qualifier Petra Kvitova on Tuesday,
the 17-year-old left-hander rallying to defeat the defending champion 2-6, 6-4,
6-3.
The American world No. 8 eased through the opening set
before her opponent, ranked 135 places below, rallied to take the final two
sets for the biggest victory of her young career.
"She mixed it up really well and I didn’t return well,"
Williams said after seeing her opponent convert three-of-four break point
opportunities in the deciding set.
"She has a good serve and she played well. I’m disappointed
I’m not going to be here the rest of the week."
Kvitova admitted she was nervous in the opening set of her
first match against a top 10 opponent, but settled down in the second.
"I started to believe I could win in the second," she said.
"In the first set, I didn’t."
In another upset, second seeded Frenchwoman Tatiana Golovin
was beaten 6-4, 6-4 by American world No. 148 Bethanie Mattek.
"This year I’ve actually been playing pretty good," Mattek
said.
"I was sick in Australia and I played an awesome match in
Chile (in a loss to Jelena Kostenic). I had match points there but it just
didn’t go my way."
The American raced to a 5-1 lead in the first set and was
never threatened.
Golovin produced five double faults in the match and won
just 49 percent of her serves. She had beaten Mattek in straight sets in 2003
in their only other meeting.
"I was seeing the ball really well," Mattek said. "My goal
for this match was to see the ball early, where she was hitting it.
"So I was there for every shot before she knew it. I stuck
to my game plan.
"I knew she was ready to go right off the bat so my goal was
to get out on top and get as many points right away as I could."
Mattek will face German wildcard Julia Goerges in the second
round.
Men’s fourth seed Czech Radek Stepanek slammed seven aces
and never lost his serve en route to a 6-1 6-4 win over American qualifier
Jesse Levine in less than an hour.
Third seed Shahar Peer was able to advance, the Israeli
easing to a 6-2, 6-1 victory over American Ahsha Rolle to join sixth seed
Caroline Wozniacki in the second round after the Dane dumped Venezuela’s
Milagros Sequera 6-0, 6-2.
In second-round matches, Olga Govortsov of Belarus rallied to defeat Renata
Voracova of the Czech Republic 4-6, 6-4, 7-6 and seventh seed Sophia Arvidsson
of Sweden battled to a 1-6, 7-5, 6-3 win over Canada’s Stephanie Dubois.
