MELBOURNE, Australia - The underdogs continued to rise at the Australian Open on Saturday afternoon, with Top 10 stars Vera Zvonareva and Marion Bartoli both sent packing in straight sets by unheralded opponents.
The No.7-ranked Zvonareva was the first to go, holding set point at 7-6 in the first set tie-break but missing a backhand and fading from there, eventually losing to fellow Russian Ekaterina Makarova after a quick second set, 76(7) 61.
Bartoli, the World No.9, was the next to go, succumbing to former Top 15 player Zheng Jie, 63 63. Zheng, a semifinalist here in 2010 who missed it last year during a five-month left wrist injury lay-off, fired 28 winners and ran down everything Bartoli threw at her, allowing the Frenchwoman only seven winners in the match. She was four-for-four on break points (Bartoli one-for-four).
Zheng also beat Bartoli in the third round during her semifinal run in 2010.
Both Makarova and Zheng had already taken out lower seeds earlier in the week, with Makarova beating No.25-seeded Brisbane champion Kaia Kanepi and Zheng taking out No.23 seed Roberta Vinci. The Russian's win was her fourth career Top 10 win, while the Chinese recorded her ninth such win.
"She played extremely well. I thought I was under pressure right away. I never got a grip on the match," Bartoli said afterwards. "She was either doing the mistakes or hitting winners, and I never really had the chance to step up and dictate. That's pretty unusual. I don't know what was going on, but I felt I couldn't really penetrate and hit winners, which usually I can do quite easily.
"She was just much better than me today and she deserved to win."
They weren't the only unseeded players to make it through. In an all-unseeded battle, Sara Errani recovered after missing a set point in the first set tie-break and rolled past Sorana Cirstea in the next two sets, 67(6) 60 62. After reaching the third round of Slams five times before but never going any further, the 24-year-old Italian is now through to her first Grand Slam second week.
"I've never been to the fourth round, so I'm very happy for this," Errani said. "I did some very good physical work in the winter. I also changed racquets - it wasn't easy, but I'm feeling my shots better. It's helping me on the court."
Errani and Zheng will meet next. Errani won their only previous meeting, though that was right before Zheng's aforementioned wrist injury lay-off.
"She's playing incredible this year. She already won a tournament, so it will be tough for sure," Errani said of playing Zheng. "We'll see how it goes tomorrow. I just want to rest and get some energy, then think about the match."
No.2 seed Petra Kvitova, No.4 seed Maria Sharapova and No.21 seed Ana Ivanovic all moved through as well. Kvitova scored a 60 10 victory after No.27 seed Maria Kirilenko had to retire with a left leg muscle injury, Sharapova crushed No.30-seeded US Open semifinalist Angelique Kerber, 61 62, and Ivanovic looked sharp in a 63 64 win over talented American Vania King.
"In the last Grand Slam Angelique almost got to the final, and it's not too many times you play a lefty, so it was tough today," Sharapova said. "Coming in here without any matches, I didn't know what to expect. But from the first point in the first round I've been really aggressive and it has been working for me."
Kvitova and Ivanovic will square off in a tantalizing fourth round clash. Ivanovic has won all three previous meetings but they haven't played in three years - Kvitova was never ranked higher than No.48 in any of those meetings.
"Petra is definitely playing some great tennis. She's one of the hottest players at the moment," Ivanovic said. "I'm really happy to go out there and throw my best at her. It's a great challenge and the better player will win."
