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Jankovic wins, Ivanovic falls

FRENCH Open champion Ana Ivanovic was upset by Agnieszka Radwanska 6-1, 3-6, 6-4 yesterday in the third round of the Italian Open, while defending champion Jelena Jankovic reached the quarterfinals when her opponent retired with an illness in Rome.

The fifth-seeded Ivanovic started off poorly and couldn't hold serve in the first set. But the Serb began dictating play with precise groundstrokes in the second, and appeared headed toward victory as she jumped out to a 4-0 lead in the decisive set.

But the 10th-seeded Radwanska staged a comeback and won the last six games, ending the match with one of her 19 winners.

Jankovic, the third seed, advanced when Ukrainian Kateryna Bondarenko retired with the Serb leading 6-1, 1-0.

The 24-year-old has won the Italian Open for the past two years and is looking to regain best form after a slump at the start of the year. She next plays Russia's Svetlana Kuznetsova, who ousted crowd favorite Flavia Pennetta 6-3, 3-6, 6-0 in a little less that two hours.

World No. 1 Dinara Safina was taking on Chinese 14th seed Zheng Jie later in the day.

On Tuesday, Serena Williams' bid for the title was squashed in her first match when the American second seed lost 2-6, 6-2, 1-6 to Swiss Patty Schnyder.

Williams appeared out of sorts from the early stages of her match, which started after 11pm local time because of rain delays and the length of the preceding matches.

She dropped serve twice in the first set, the second time to love, then came back strongly in the second set only to slump out in the decider.

In Munich, Marin Cilic of Croatia won the first eight games and swept past Philipp Kohlschreiber 6-0, 6-4 yesterday to reach the quarterfinals of the BMW Open.

Cilic is seeded second at the claycourt event but is the highest ranked player in the tournament following the withdrawal of defending champion Fernando Gonzalez because of an ankle injury.

The Croat double-faulted on his first match point but closed out the match on the next.

"I don't know whether I should be feeling frustrated or ashamed," Kohlschreiber said after his poor performance.

The German won his first title here two years ago and had not lost to Cilic in two previous meetings.

Seventh-seeded Paul-Henri Mathieu of France also reached the last eight, beating another German, Denis Gremelmayr, 6-1, 6-4. A semifinalist last year in Munich, Mathieu won consecutive matches for only the second time this year.

Mikhail Youzhny of Russia upset third-seeded Nicolas Almagro of Spain 7-6 (2), 6-4.

In Oeiras, Portugal, second-seeded Nikolay Davydenko rallied from two breaks down in the second set to beat Andrey Golubev 6-1, 7-6 (4) on Tuesday in the first round of the Estoril Open.

Third seed David Ferrer won 16 points in a row as he recovered from a weak start to beat Daniel Gimeno-Traver 6-4, 6-1.





 

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