World number one Dinara Safina joined Maria Sharapova as a third round casualty on a day of shocks at the US Open.
World number one bows out at Flushing Meadows
World number one Dinara Safina joined Maria Sharapova as a third round casualty on a day of shocks at the US Open.
Russian Safina, still searching for a first grand slam win, was beaten by world number 70 Petra Kvitova of the Czech Republic after having the court switched.
That was a direct result of Sharapova's three-hour marathon defeat to American wild card Melanie Oudin and Andy Roddick's fifth set tie-break loss to John Isner but it did Kvitova no harm as she completed a third set tie-break win 6-4 2-6 7-6 (7-5).
Whether the long wait to begin her match and the change of courts had an adverse affect or not, Safina was quickly in trouble against the world number 70.
Despite some poor form, the draw had been kind to the world number one with all the seeds in her quarter eliminated giving her a potentially clear path to the semi-finals.
Safina, though, seemed determined to do things the hard way and in an opening set that saw six breaks of serve, the Russian offered her Czech opponent eight break points, Kvitova taking four of them on the way to taking a 1-0 lead.
Bad serve
There were more service woes in the second set when she was broken by Kvitova in the first game.
At 2-0 down, though, she showed some grit to save three break points and then broke serve herself on the way to pulling level at one set all.
Kvitova was dominating the top seed's second serve and again broke the Russian in the opening game although Safina did hold the third game to get on the board at 2-1 down.
Safina broke back in the sixth game to tie the final set up at 3-3.
Kvitova was still right in the match but playing as if it had already got away from her and looking extremely tired. She sent a straightforward overhead into the net and promptly lost an opportunity to break again as Safina celebrated going 4-3 up.
At 5-5, Safina could still not shake off her serving problems, falling behind in the game with her fifth double fault of the set, ninth of the match, but benefiting from some tired play from Kvitova to take a 6-5 lead over the 19-year-old.
Match points
The next game saw Safina save three match points and holding her nerve to take the match to a deciding tie-break.
Kvitova took a minibreak from the first point before Safina levelled at 2-2 only to slip 5-2 behind as the Czech refused to wilt. Kvitova earned her first match point after a wild return from Safina but made no mistake with her second chance as Safina overhit a lob.
The victory sets up a fourth-round clash with Belgian world number 50 Yanina Wickmayer, who reached the last 16 with a 6-3 6-4 win over Italy's Sara Errani.
French Open champion Svetlana Kuznetsova, the sixth seed and 2004 champion, has a fourth-round tie against ninth seed Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark.
Neither player had dropped a set in the opening two matches and that continued in round three as Russia's Kuznetsova beat Israel's Shahar Peer 7-5 6-1 while Wozniacki dispatched 24th seed Sorana Cirstea 6-3 6-
