Ninth seed Agnieszka Radwanska became the first big casualty of the Australian Open after her defeat to Kateryna Bondarenko.
Ninth seed falls to three-set defeat
Ninth seed Agnieszka Radwanska became the first big casualty of the Australian Open so far after her three-set defeat to Kateryna Bondarenko.
Radwanska fell away in the final set as Ukrainian Bondarenko claimed her scalp with a 7-6 (9-7) 4-6 6-1 victory.
Bondarenko clinched a nip-and-tuck opening set on a tie-break but her Polish foe hit back in the second.
Radwanska, who won three WTA titles in 2008, seemed set to kick-on from here, however instead her game collapsed.
She struggled with her first serve as Bondarenko, her backhand firing on all cylinders, surged into a 5-0 lead in the decider.
That left Radwanska with a mountain to climb and she was unable to recover.
Fourth seed Elena Dementieva was also taken all the way to the wire, however she came through her test against Germany's Kristina Barrois.
Dementieva, though, never really reached her best form as she recorded a 7-6 (7-4) 2-6 6-1 win.
The Russian, who arrived in Melbourne on a high after back-to-back titles on the WTA Tour in Auckland and Sydney, was broken early at the Hisense Arena.
However Dementieva broke Barrois to save the set before going on to win the tie-break.
Barrois, though, breezed through to claim the second set and level the match.
But Dementieva was in blistering form in the final set as she raced into a 5-0 lead and before seeing out the match.
