TAIPEI, Chinese Taipei - Kimiko Date-Krumm was among a trio of contenders upended in first round action on Wednesday at the OEC Taipei WTA Ladies Open.
Down 4-2 in the third set against No.1 seed and World No.54 Date-Krumm, qualifier Valeria Solovyeva reeled off four straight games to secure a 62 26 64 victory. It was the 254th-ranked Russian's second-best win in terms of ranking, having beaten then-No.29 Lucie Safarova in Budapest in July.
"Maybe she wasn't playing her best, but I'm really excited to beat the most experienced player on the tour," the 21-year-old Solovyeva said of the player 22 years her senior.
Also recording the second-best win of her career was Poland's Katarzyna Piter, who was up 64 10 on the third-seeded and 51st-ranked Zhang Shuai when the Chinese had to retire with a neck injury.
"Even though she retired in the second set, I had to win the first one, so I'm happy about passing the first round," Piter said of defeating Zhang, who won her first WTA 125K Series title last week in Nanjing. "She's an amazing player. I think she may be a little tired after last week. I'm trying to do my best here, as the points could help me make the Australian Open main draw.
"I like Taiwan very much. This is my first time here. Every day it rains, but it's warm rain. So it's not like European rain, like in Poland, where it's -5 now! I like the city. Everyone speaks English, so it's easier to communicate. And they are so nice."
The most dramatic match of the day saw Kazakhstan's Yaroslava Shvedova fight off three match points on her serve down 5-4 in the second set en route to a 36 76(3) 63 triumph over fourth-seeded Japanese Ayumi Morita.
The one seed who did move on was Japan's Misaki Doi, a 62 60 winner over Julia Glushko.
The second round also got underway, with Alison Van Uytvanck and Zheng Saisai advancing to the quarterfinals.
No.2 seed Yanina Wickmayer, the new on-paper favorite, is among those looking to secure quarterfinal berths on Thursday.
