Top seeds exit Tournament of Champions in Bali
Two quarterfinals were scheduled for the opening day at the Commonwealth Bank Tournament of Champions in Bali.
Russian Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova and Serbian Ana Ivanovic kicked off the tournament with their quarterfinal match. Although third seed Pavlyuchenkova had a humiliating start in the tournament against the unseeded, but talented
Ivanovic, she committed six double faults in the first set losing it to Ivanovic without winning a single game. Pavlyuchenkova failed to win a single game till 6-0, 5-0. Although she managed to win the twelfth game, she lost the following game to Ivanovic
losing the set 6-1.
Pavlyuchenkova blames herself for the defeat as she says, "First of all I want to apologise for this terrible match today. But I guess you have some days like this but for me it’s unacceptable and I hate the way I played. I think
it’s a good lesson for me, actually. I didn’t do anything to put pressure on her. I was missing the second or third shot, I was making a lot of double-faults, I didn’t move at all. I respect her, she’s a great player, but she didn’t do anything today."
Talk about being graceful in defeat!
Another seed upset witnessed in Bali was when Chinese Li Na and Japanese Kimiko Date Krumm followed the Russian / Serbian pair to battle it out for a spot in the semi finals. Top seed, Na came into the tournament with a superb
season littered with semi final and quarterfinal finishes at major events. She currently ranks at eleventh position in the WTA rankings. A favourite to win the title at Bali; it came as a shock to tennis fans all over when the 40 year old Japanese outlasted
Na in their opening match.
In a three setter clash that lasted two hours and twenty two minutes, Krumm led and lagged throughout the match before she finally managed a win over the Chinese marvel. Krumm, dominated the first set maintaining the lead till
5-1 before Na fought back taking the score to 5-3. Krumm eventually managed to win the set 6-4. Krumm fell back in the second set giving Na the lead at 5-3. Na went on to win the second set 6-3, levelling the match at one set each. Na continued her form into
the third set, leading it 3-1. It was then that Krumm bounced back and after losing only one game won the final set 6-4.
Krumm, who had attended a ritual ceremony at a Hindu temple in the morning, said after the match, “I must say I went to the temple ceremony this morning and that’s why I must win today. Special power! For me it was nothing to lose
so I just tried to enjoy it. Even though I was losing in the final set I just tried to push myself. I knew she had much more pressure than me because she is the number one seed here and she’s had the best year of her career this year. She was number nine in
the world and in the semi-final in the Australian Open. So she had all the pressure and I had nothing to lose."
Krumm goes on to play Ivanovic in their semi final match later in the event.
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