Peng upsets Kuznetsova; Petzschner over Melzer
By Nick Georgandis
TennisNow.com
@ Tony Chang; @ Charles Cowins
Upsetting high seeds in early rounds of Master 1000 tournaments is turning into quite the tradition for China’s Shuai Peng. Two weeks after taking down Li Na at Indian Wells, Peng whipped Russia’s Svetlana Kuznetsova, the 11th seed at the Sony Ericsson Open on Saturday, 6-3, 6-1.
Peng, now 24-7 on the year, needed just 75 minutes to eliminate the 15th-ranked Kuznetsova, knocking 68 percent of her first serves for winners and saving all seven of Kuznetsova’s break points.
Peng improves to 24-7 by beating Kuznetsova, 6-3, 6-1. Peng has now defeated two ranked seeds in the tournament, kicking it off with a win over Arvane Rezai.
While Kuznetsova was upset, old favorites Jelena Jankovic, Samantha Stosur and Maria Sharpaova all took two-set victories. Jankovic whipped Klara Zakopalova, 7-5, 6-1, despite committing six double faults. She made up for It by breaking Zakopalova seven times in 10 chances.
Stosur blew out Safarova 6-0 in the first set, then held on in the second for a 7-6(1) victory. Stosur hit 10 of 11 first serves for winners in the opening set, and broke Safarova three times to make it a quick kill.
Sharapova spent the least time of the three winners on court, needing only 58 minutes to dispose of Germany’s Sabine Lisicki, 6-2, 6-0. After moving up five spots in the rankings last week following her
On the men’s side of the tournament, Jurgen Melzer became the second Top 10 player to fall victim to an upset, blasted by Germany’s Philippp Petzschner, 6-4, 6-3. Petzschner was particularly adept on break points, saving five out of six and improving to 2-0 lifetime against the Austrian.
It was Petzschner’s first win over a Top 10 player since he upset Fernando Verdasco in the first round of Halle in June of 2009.
Also scoring a bit of an upset was Janko Tipsarevic, a 6-3, 7-6(4) winner of No. 20 Marin Cilic.
Meanwhile, in men’s doubles, the irresistible force of Novak Djokovic paired with the unwinnable object known as Andy Murray, and the two Top 5 men lost to Sergi Stakhovsky and Mikhail Youzhny, 5-7, 6-3, 10-8.
Djokovic hasn’t lost a match as a singles player this year, while Murray has lost twice in a row to American men ranked outside the Top 100.
Playing together as doubles partners for the first time, the pair looked sharp early, but the 15th-ranked tandem of Stakhosvky and Youzhny wore them out in the long run.