Rate it!

8 votes

Third seed Svetlana Kuznetsova of Russia lost in the third round of the US Open, making a slew of unforced errors to hand the match 6-3 6-7 6-3 to Katarina Srebotnik of Slovenia.

Kuznetsova, who clinched the 2004 title and was last year's runner up, was the second big name to tumbled out of the tournament in two days. Top seed Ana Ivanovic of Serbia lost her second round match on Thursday.

The first set went with serve until the eighth game when a couple of errors from Kuznetsova handed 28th seed Srebotnik a break and a chance to serve for the set. She wrapped it up with a solid game including an ace, one of six in the first set.

Kuznetsova played a commanding tiebreak in the second, winning it 7-1, but stuttered again in the third set.

Srebotnik secured a break early in the third set and held her own serve to love. Serving for the match, she played aggressively, charging the net and winning on her third match point when Kuznetsova returned a serve high and long.

Local favorite Lindsay Davenport also slipped out of the tournament, outpaced and outplayed 6-1 7-6 by former Wimbledon runner-up Marion Bartoli.

In a match interrupted by rain, the former world number one and 1998 champion struggled to get a foothold against the French 12th seed and was plagued by double faults.

Davenport, a three-times grand slam champion who returned to action just three months after the birth of her son Jagger in June 2007, was roared on by the crowd packed into the Arthur Ashe Stadium court but Bartoli dominated the match.

She broke 23rd seed Davenport's serve in the fourth game before running away with the first set. Bartoli kept up the momentum by breaking again in the first game of the second.

Davenport, 32, clawed back to level the set at 5-5 but then threw away her service game with a string of double faults in what she said was "one of the worst games in my career."

In the tiebreak, Davenport's serve let her down again and Bartoli clinched it 7-3.

In the fourth round Bartoli will play 29th seed Sybille Bammer , after the Austrian defeat Tatiana Perebiynis of Ukraine 6-3 6-0.

Second seed Jelena Jankovic came through another bruising battle, edging past Zheng Jie 7-5 7-5 to reach the fourth round.

The Serbian, chasing her first grand slam title, scrambled into the last 16 after two hours nine minutes and will meet Caroline Wozniacki, the Danish 21st seed who put out Belarus's 14th seed Victoria Azarenka 6-4 6-4.

Having been pushed to three sets in the previous round, Jankovic again became embroiled in a tough encounter as Wimbledon semi-finalist Zheng matched her from the baseline.

World number 37 Zheng saved four match points in a marathon 12th game of the second set which featured 11 deuces but Jankovic finally clinched victory when the Chinese netted a forehand.

Reuters