No. 15 ranked Maria Sharapova of Russia was sent packing today by No. 67 ranked wildcard Kimiko Date Krumm of Japan in the first round of the 2010 Pan Pacific Open being played in Tokyo, Japan.
The 23-year-old Maria was the defending champion of this tournament, but was shown the exit door by a local resident and all-time Japanese # 1 Kimiko who turns 40 tomorrow.
Long-time Japanese crowd favorite Kimiko stunned the former world No. 1 Maria 7-5, 3-6, 6-3. Kimiko advanced in 2 hours, 9 minutes, as Maria, still struggling with her serve, piled up 11 double faults and had her big serve broken five times.
“To play against a former World No. 1 and defending champion, I knew I had to play to the best of my ability,” said Kimiko, who returned to competitive tennis in 2008 after a 12-year layoff. She won this Pan Pacific tournament 15 years ago, in 1995. She added, “I just came back from Korea yesterday and was really tired. My body felt a little better today but this surface was a lot faster that the one in Korea.”
Maria was up a break at 3-2 in the 2nd set, but double faulted twice when leading 40-love to let Kimiko back into the match. Maria said: “Momentum is so big in tennis. If you give your opponent a chance they can get confident and take the momentum away…
Meanwhile, Jelena Jankovic moved into the third round with a 6-4, 6-1 victory over Ukrainian Alona Bondarenko, and sixth-seeded Pole Agnieszka Radwanska joined the Serbian star in the round of 16 with a 6-2, 6-3 pasting of Belarusian Olga Govortsova on Day 2.
Four other seeds posted first-round wins, as No. 10 Russian Svetlana Kuznetsova was trailing Agnes Szavay 3-4 in the first set when the Hungarian retired with a left thigh injury; No. 11 Frenchwoman Marion Bartoli topped Belgian Yanina Wickmayer 6-4, 6-4; No. 13 Israeli Shahar Peer overcame Swiss Timea Bacsinszky 5-7, 7-5, 6-4; and No. 14 Aravane Rezai of France beat Slovenian Polona Hercog 6-2, 7-5.
An opening-round upset came when Italian qualifier Roberta Vinci vaulted past 15th-seeded Russian Nadia Petrova 7-5, 6-4.
Additional opening-round wins came for Italian Sara Errani, Kazakhstan’s Yaroslava Shvedova, Serbian Ana Ivanovic, Romanian Alexandra Dulgheru, German Julie Goerges and American qualifier Coco Vandeweghe.
The former world No. 1 Ivanovic beat last week’s Seoul titlist Alisa Kleybanova 6-3, 6-2, while Goerges grounded struggling former top-ranked star Dinara Safina 6-1, 5-7, 6-2.
The former French Open champion Ivanovic was the Pan Pacific runner-up in 2007. Ivanovic will meet the former Wimbledon runner-up Bartoli here on Tuesday.
