New York, Aug 30 (IANS) Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova crashed out of the US Open Monday, bowing to Romania’s Alexandra Dulgheru 6-7(3), 3-6 in the first round.
The fifth-seeded Czech has been struggling on the hard-court circuit since her All-England Club triumph. The 21-year-old has posted a match record of just 2-3 after becoming the youngest Wimbledon winner in seven years.
‘I know that I am still young and this is something new for me,’ Kvitova said Monday after the loss. ‘I need more experiences for sure.’
Kvitova also has been hampered by a case of asthma that flares up in humid weather and an adductor injury sustained while running the table at Wimbledon. But she refused to blame her body for her struggles in the first round defeat.
‘Everything is in the head. If you are thinking on the court negatively, it is bad,’ she said.
Other women seeds advanced to the second round with third seed Maria Sharapova rallying past British Heather Watson 3-6, 7-5, 6-3 and second seed Vera Zvonareva romping off Franch qualifier Stephanie Foretz Gacon 6-3, 6-0.
The 19-year-old Watson took advantage of some erratic play from the Russian and looked poised for an upset at 5-5 in the second set before Sharapova raised her game.
Hitting with added ferocity, Sharapova made her 104th-ranked opponent race from side-to-side and eventually wore her out in two hours 34 minutes, setting up second round match against Anastasiya Yakimova of Belarus.
Twelfth-seeded Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland upset her younger sister Urszula Radwanska 6-2, 6-3. Australia’s Samantha Stosur, ninth seed, took just an hour to dispatch Sweden’s Sofia Arvidsson in 6-2, 6-3. China’s Peng Shuai also advanced in straight sets of 6-3, 6-4 over American Varvara Lepchenko.
2010 U.S. Open quarterfinalist Slovakia’s Dominika Cibulkova, 14th seed, beat China’s Zhang Shuai also in 6-3, 6-4.
Nadia Petrova of Russia edged off Yung-Jan Chan of Chinese Taipei in 6-3, 1-6, 6-4, while 25th-seeded Maria Kirilenko of Russia defeated her compatriot Ekaterina Makarova 4-6, 6-1, 7-6(3).
