Mauresmo Out, Serena Rolls on at Aussie Open

Posted on January 21, 2007

It was upsets aplenty Sunday at the Australian Open in fourth-round play where No. 2 seed Amelie Mauresmo, No. 3 Svetlana Kuznetsova, No. 7 Elena Dementieva, No. 11 Jelena Jankovic and No. 9 Dinara Safina were all toppled by lower or unseeded players.

The shocked Mauresmo was ushered out in straight sets 6-4, 6-3 by unseeded Czech Lucie Safarova.

"It's amazing. I still can't believe it," Safarova said. "I'm so happy. It's incredible. I came out this morning and said, 'Wow this is a big court.' But I felt really comfortable here."

Mauresmo says she needs to get back to court to reestablish her confidence.

"I'm not completely down or whatever, I'm just disappointed," Mauresmo said. "It's always disappointing to go out of any tournament, even more in a Grand Slam. There was not a moment I felt my form was coming back. It was pretty frustrating. But I am going to go back on the court, go back to work, that's obviously what I need."

Mauresmo's loss means Maria Sharapova will take over the No. 1 ranking from Justine Henin-Hardenne, who skipped the Australian Open as she is reportedly going through divorce proceedings.

Safarova next faces fellow Czech and No. 10 seed Nicole Vaidisova, who upended Dementieva 6-3, 6-3.

The No. 16-seeded Shahar Peer had a surprisingly easy time with Kuznetsova 6-4, 6-2, while unseeded American Serena Williams continued her run with a convincing 6-3, 6-2 win over Jankovic, and No. 19 seed Na Li upset Safina 6-2, 6-2 for a quarterfinal berth.

"I think it's mental," said the fragile Kuznetsova. "I was thinking about different stuff -- not like, 'What am I going to eat for dinner' -- but about what's going on on the court. I wasn't 100 percent there in my mind."

Williams said everything is falling into place for her unseeded run to a championship.

"It was absolutely sensational...I just play some of my best tennis here," Williams said. "I'm on the right track -- I like being a dangerous floatie."

Other winners Sunday were No. 12 Anna Chakvetadze who defeated Jelena Kostanic 6-4, 6-4, and No. 15 Daniela Hantuchova who came from a set down to stop unseeded American Ashley Harkleroad 6-7(8), 7-5, 6-3.

"I'm very disappointed," said Harkleroad, who blew a break lead in the second and third sets, speaking to reporters. "That's a match I should have won. It hurts more than any loss I've ever had."

Scheduled for Monday play are (6) Hingis vs. (19) Li, (4) Clijsters vs. (15) Hantuchova, (1) Sharapova vs. (22) Zvonareva in an all-Russian, and (8) Schnyder vs. (12) Chakvetadze.