ZURICH, Oct 17 - Serbia's Jelena Jankovic and Ana
Ivanovic joined the exodus of top players at this year's Zurich
Open on Wednesday with surprise second-round defeats.
World number three Jankovic was beaten 6-4 6-4 by unseeded
Czech Nicole Vaidisova while Ivanovic, the world number four,
was downed 6-3 6-1 by fellow teenager Tatiana Golovin of France.
The two Serbs were playing their opening matches of the
tournament after receiving byes into the second round.
Earlier in the day, eighth seeded former world number one
Amelie Mauresmo lost 6-2 4-6 1-6 to Ukraine's Alona Bondarenko.
Originally boasting a strong field of 14 top-20 players,
including seven from the top 10, the Zurich Open has now lost
half of its eight seeded players.
"I wasn't thinking about taking each match at a time but had
started to think too much about doing well at the whole
tournament," Ivanovic said after losing to Golovin for only the
second time in eight meetings.
A resident of nearby Basel, Ivanovic had described the
Zurich event as a home tournament but denied that had put any
extra pressure on her.
"It was more because of how I now see myself as a top
player," said the 19-year-old Serb who has shot up the sport's
rankings following runs to this year's French Open final and the
Wimbledon semi-finals.
NERVY PLAY
Unusually nervous play by Ivanovic coupled with some fine
shots by Golovin allowed the Russian-born Frenchwoman to take
command of an entertaining first set.
The second set began with an exchange of breaks but the one
by Ivanovic turned out to be her only game of the set as Golovin
wrapped up the match with a five-game winning streak.
"I lost to her so many times already, I kind of thought it
was my turn to win," Golovin said afterwards.
Following Ivanovic on to court for the day's final match,
Jankovic paid the price for missing too many key points against
Vaidisova.
The world number three converted just one of four break
points in the opening set, while her Czech opponent was handed
two and seized them both.
In the second set Jankovic finally broke ahead but two
further breaks for Vaidisova put paid to any hopes of a comeback
by the favourite.
Unlike her fellow seeds, Mauresmo did at least manage to win
a set, taking a comfortable lead after breaking Bondarenko twice
without reply.
But like Jankovic, the Frenchwoman then missed important
points in the second set and was outplayed in the third,
flagging as her opponent struck a series of winners.
Organisers will be hoping to avoid similar upsets on
Thursday when the top two seeds finally enter the fray.
World number one Justine Henin begins her campaign against
Russian world number 23 Vera Zvonareva.
Fellow Russian Svetlana Kuznetsova takes on Austrian world
number 21 Sybille Bammer.
(Writing by Mark Ledsom in Berne)