AFP afpji

Arvidsson ousts Chakvetadze for first Antwerp upset

Thu 14 Feb, 06:45 PM


ANTWERP, Belgium (AFP) - Sweden's Sofia Arvidsson beat Russian second seed Anna Chakvetadze 6-3, 7-5 at the WTA Diamond Games here on Thursday to set up a quarter-final with China's Li Na.

Arvidsson took 79 minutes to achieve the first major upset of the week.

The tournament, in it's final year after a 2009 calendar shakeup on the women's tour, was awaiting a later opening match of Belgian tennis heroine Justine Henin.

The world number one was taking on Bulgarian qualifier Tsvetana Pironkova and was playing at home for the first time since 2003 on the WTA tour.

Henin opted to play in Antwerp at the farewell edition, copping a 10,000-dollar fine for withdrawing from next week's mega-event in the Gulf at Doha.

In addition, she will forfeit 125,000 dollars of her share in the season year-end bonus pool for missing the newly-required event.

It was the first time in four tournmaments this season that number 66 Arvidsson had advanced past the second round.

Arvidsson came out on top of the erratic Chakvetadze in a match riddled with 15 break points - four converted. The Russian with seven WTA titles at age 20 came into the tournament following a win indoors in Paris last weekend.

Russian qualifier Alisa Kleybanova kept up a run of form with a defeat of Kateryna Bondarenko of the Ukraine 7-5, 3-6, 7-5 and next faces the winner of the Henin match.

Swiss Timea Bacsinszky beat Julie Ditty of the USA 7-5, 6-4 to set up a match with Slovak third seed Daniela Hantuchova.