By Erik Gudris / Monday, September 30, 2013
Andrea Petkovic scored one of the biggest wins of her comeback as she upset defending China Open champion Victoria Azarenka in Beijing.
Photo Credit: AP
Germany's Andrea Petkovic continues to prove she is capable of top 10 tennis as she scored the biggest upset so far at this week's China Open.
Taking on No. 2 seed Victoria Azarenka, Petkovic claimed the opening set and then went up 2-1 in the first round match against the event's defending champion. But when Petkovic starting feeling ill, Azarenka stormed back to take the second set 6-2.
Multiple errors from Azarenka did not help her cause as she found herself deadlocked at 4-all in the final set. Petkovic surged ahead though, winning the last eight points to secure the 6-4, 2-6, 6-4 victory.
It was Petkovic's first win in three tries against Azarenka and her second win over a top two player since beating then-No. 1 Caroline Wozniacki in Miami two years ago.
"I'm very happy with my performance," Petkovic said to WTA.com. "I was happy with my movement and my serve for the most part, and I managed to get a lot of balls back very deep and very strong. Parts of the match were a really, really good level, some parts I lost a bit of energy, but overall I'm very happy."
Azarenka, who hit 44 unforced errors during her second straight opening round loss in Asia, was not as thrilled with her performance.
"It was an awful match and a very bad performance from me, so there's not much to say about it," Azarenka said. "It happens once, twice a year to every player, and it happened to me today."
Petkovic will next face former two-time China Open champion Svetlana Kuznetsova in the next round.
Ivanovic, Jankovic Struggle But Advance
In other early round action, No.8 seed Jelena Jankovic got blown out of the first set against Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in just 30 minutes. But Jankovic battled back to complete a 1-6, 6-4, 6-0 win.
Jankovic is aiming for a good result this week to keep her in the hunt for one of the final eight spots at the upcoming WTA Championships.
No. 14 seed Ana Ivanovic was in a deep hole in her opening round meeting versus recent US Open semifinalist Flavia Pennetta.
Ivanovic came back from 1-5 down in the first set and then from trailing in the tiebreak. Ivanovic then cruised to a 7-6(9), 6-1 win.
Follow Erik Gudris on Twitter @ATNtennis.