WTA Tour - Keothavong falls apart in Stanford

Eurosport - Fri, 18 Jul 09:46:00 2008

Britain's Anne Keothavong squandered a 4-1 lead in the final set before falling to sixth seed Marion Bartoli 6-3 1-6 7-5 in the second round at the Stanford Classic.

2008 Wimbledon Anne Keothavong first round - 0

The world number 82 and British number one was up 4-1 and two breaks against the 2007 Wimbledon runner-up when she lost four consecutive games and eventually the match.

Keothavong held serve once more in the final set, but was broken a third time in the 12th game to drop her chance at a quarter-final match-up with world number eight Anna Chakvetadze.

The Londoner had beaten world number 33 Sania Mirza in the first round.

Australian Samantha Stosur, meanwhile, upset third seed Vera Zvonareva 6-3 6-2 in the second round.

Stosur, who got her place in the tournament after Lindsay Davenport pulled out, quickly found her stride and overpowered Zvonareva with a huge serve and clean groundstrokes.

"I really made the most of my opportunity getting in," said Stosur, who ended the match by serving four aces.

"I served well, played aggressive, hit the ball deep, attacked when I could and played pretty good defense."

The 24-year-old Stosur, who was sidelined by lyme disease from September through April but returned to win the Wimbledon mixed doubles title earlier this month with Bob Bryan, added that she was encouraged by her progress.

Stosur will face Aleksandra Wozniak in the quarter-finals after the Canadian beat Sybille Bammer of Austria 6-4 7-5.

Fifth seed Patty Schnyder of Switzerland advanced with a 7-6 6-4 win over Russian Alisa Kleybanova, earning herself a match-up with top seed Serena Williams in the quarter-finals.

"I had a plan. It was just a matter of how many points she would allow me to do it," Schnyder said.

"She was trying to dictate everything, whether winners or errors. I think she was so dominant it was tough for me to play. I had to mix it up a lot."

Eurosport + / Reuters

Comment 1 - 8 of 8

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  1. 4-1 up to 7-5 down.... hmmmm what a classic!!!!! (boring)

    From wilcon277, on Sat 19 Jul 9:41AM

  2. For gods sake, it hasnt her fault she lost! She just came up against an opponent with more experienc in these situations. This article is stupid, she did so well to get here and also they gave no credit whatsoever to Bartoli.

    From chiakifug, on Fri 18 Jul 9:58PM

  3. we hear all of this about Murray simply because we know that this guy (murray) has potential to win slams/events and i don't think common sense wise you can compare murray and anne. As with Anne she is'nt expected to do well (not meant in negative way) i think beating mirza was a step in the right direction and she can only go forward from this result.

    From jackel, on Fri 18 Jul 9:11PM

  4. well give the girl a break she is making definate progress she really tested bartoli and yes she perhaps should of won but Anne has'nt been in this situation before against a highly ranked player. however, her ranking should go up and her confidence should as well considering it shows that Anne has potential to at least with hard effort to be at least a top 30 or 40 player beyond that who knows. But yahoo seriously give her a break.

    From jackel, on Fri 18 Jul 9:07PM

  5. What's new. Don't we hear this all the time about Andy Murray.

    From carlpage@ymail.com, on Fri 18 Jul 8:58PM

  6. "Falls apart"? "Squandered"? Bartoli is ranked 72 places above Keothavong. Closing out match against such an opponant is very hard to do. Your coverage is negative to the point of being insulting.

    From Bobito, on Fri 18 Jul 6:27PM

  7. LOL that as bad the BBC one funny how the WTA praise Bartoli for raising her game and coming back where the British based sites blame the Brit.She did amazingly to qualify and beat Mirza then nearly beat last years Wimbledon Finalist.She is showing steady progress and should now get into top 75.

    From mark l, on Fri 18 Jul 4:47PM

  8. It's amazing how quickly you have deprived her of her title! When she was winning, she was refered to as British number one Anne Keothavong, unfortunately now that she has lost, she is just British Anne Keothavong. talk about instant judgment

    From unzwa, on Fri 18 Jul 4:01PM
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