Ana Ivanovic's suffered a setback on way to French Open on Wednesday when she was ruled out of the third round in Rome Masters with a 6-1 3-6 6-4 loss to Poland's Agnieszka Radwanska.
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Ana Ivanovic of Serbia looks dejected during her third round match against Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland during day three of the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour Internazionli BNL D'Italia event at Foro Italico on May 6, 2009 in Rome, Italy. |
The Serbian fifth seed, yet to win a title this year, looked on the way to victory when 4-0 up in the final set, after having fought back from set down. But she shockly lost the following six games.
Ivanovic had tidied up her act in the second set of the match at the Rome tournament, which is played on clay like the French Open, after making an inept start and losing the first set in just 23 minutes.
Radwanska, seeded 10th, will take on the winner of the match between American fourth seed Venus Williams and Russia's Anna Chakvetadze in the quarter-finals.
Seventh seed Svetlana Kuznetsova ended Italy's hopes of a local champion when she battled to a 6-3 3-6 6-0 victory over Flavia Pennetta.
Kuznetsova set up a meeting with champion Jelena Jankovic who eased through when Ukrainian Kateryna Bondarenko retired ill from their third round match with the Serb leading 6-1 1-0.
Jankovic, who is seeking her third consecutive title in Rome, had looked in impressive form before her opponent pulled out.
She rifled in a series of fine winners to take the opening set in under half an hour and broke to love in the first game of the second.
Sixth seeded Belarussian Victoria Azarenka blew away Dane Caroline Wozniacki 6-2 6-2 to move into the last eight.
(Xinhua News Agency May 7, 2009)