BEIJING, China - 27-year-old Swede Sofia Arvidsson recorded the biggest win of her career at the China Open on Monday night, picking off Petra Kvitova the same day the Wimbledon champion ascended to a career-high No.5.
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Arvidsson battled two hours and 28 minutes for a 76(6) 46 63 win over the No.5-seeded Kvitova, facing two break points at 2-3 in the third set but staving them both off and winning four games in a row to seal the victory. Her only previous win over a Top 5 player came via retirement over a No.1-ranked Caroline Wozniacki in front of her Swedish home crowd at Bastad this summer.
Kvitova wasn't the only seed to fall on a difficult day for favorites. The other two seeds playing second round matches were also ousted, with No.7 seed Francesca Schiavone losing to Dominika Cibulkova, 62 62, and No.16 seed Svetlana Kuznetsova losing to Ana Ivanovic, 62 63. Tamira Paszek also won her second round match against Petra Cetkovska, 16 64 62.
Ivanovic has now won six of her eight matches against Kuznetsova. "I didn't expect to play this well and have this scoreline, but I executed my shots very well today and everything seemed to work out," Ivanovic said. "Kuznetsova is a great player and such a great champion. It wasn't an easy match at all."
While many other players have been reminiscing about coming here for the Olympics three years ago, Ivanovic only brought that tournament up when asked what the toughest moment of her career was. "Pulling out of the Olympics here in '08 was one of my toughest moments," said the Serb, who had a thumb injury that year. "It was just after the French Open when I became No.1. I wasn't able to practice or play and perform. That was very, very hard for me."
Two seeds were in action as the first round wrapped up, and while No.12 seed Peng Shuai fell to Flavia Pennetta, No.1 seed Wozniacki managed to advance, but only just - facing double break point at 4-all in the third set against the huge-serving Lucie Hradecka, Wozniacki scraped her way out of trouble, holding and eventually getting a decisive break at 5-all and winning, 36 60 75.
Hradecka finished the match with 43 winners to 44 errors, including nine aces (seven coming in the third set). Wozniacki finished with 16 winners to 15 errors.
"She's a player who doesn't give you any rhythm. She's serving 200kph serves so when it's on it's difficult," Wozniacki said. "In the second set her first serve percentage dropped, which made it easier for me to start the rallies. It wasn't a pretty match today but I'm through, and that's what's most important."
Maria Kirilenko, Klara Zakopalova, qualifier Virginie Razzano and wildcard Zheng Jie also scored first round wins on Day 3 of the Premier-level event.
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