Kuznetsova Survives Larcher de Brito, Ivanovic Out

The challengers certainly weren't discouraged at the $1.34-million Rogers Cup presented by National Bank on Thursday, as the entire third round line-up took the court with their eyes on quarterfinal berths at the Tier I tournament.
 
The first match to light up Stade Uniprix was No.4 seed Svetlana Kuznetsova's three set struggle with 15-year-old phenom Michelle Larcher de Brito. Larcher de Brito, whose powerful groundstrokes and competitive fire have her touted as one of the true future stars of the game, took it to Kuznetsova from start to finish on Stadium court. After losing a tight first set she rebounded to take the second easily, and even held a point for 2-0 early in the third. The experienced Kuznetsova would hang on, however, grabbing her own break mid-set and holding tightly to her serve the rest of the way to win, 75 26 64.
 
"I went to watch her yesterday; I expected her to be good," Kuznetsova said. "This is my first tournament since Wimbledon, so it's hard to get the rhythm back. I was fighting a lot in this match, and that's why I won. But I give her all credit."
 
"I got a little bit tight sometimes, but I think I did pretty well throughout the whole match," said Larcher de Brito, who already has two Top 20 wins to her name and was looking for her first Top 10 win. "She's a Grand slam champion. She's a really great player. She was running me side to side and it was really tough. But it was a fun match; it was a good fight and I enjoyed myself."
 
On the same court at night it was another teenager - 17-year-old Tamira Paszek - who caused a stir, this time actually closing it out. The Austrian's flat, penetrating groundstrokes were on fire as she took on Ana Ivanovic in front of a full house; she surprised the top seed with a quick first set and after going down easily in the second she took control again in the third for a shock 62 16 62 upset, her first career Top 10 win - and over a world No.1, no less.
 
"The first thing I was thinking was, 'Well girl, you made it. It's over now,'" Paszek said. "The second thing was that it was the first Top 10 player I've beaten. I've had a lot of chances before and played some great matches but never did that. It was also the first night match I won in my career. So there were a lot of first times today. I don't know how, but I managed it."
 
"It was very frustrating because I didn't know how it was going to pull up; I was in pain through the whole match," said Ivanovic, who was struggling with a hurt right thumb coming into the match. "The pain wasn't so sharp but I couldn't hold my racquet on my forehand. I tried to fight as much as I could. I really wanted to win this match. But obviously she's a very good player. She figured it out."
 
The mid-season struggles continue for Ivanovic. Since winning her first Grand Slam title at Roland Garros and subsequently ascending to No.1 in the world she has suffered surprise defeats in both tournaments she has played, first to unheralded wildcard Zheng Jie in the third round of Wimbledon and now to the young Paszek at Montréal, also in the third round.
 
Another marathon took place on Court Banque Nationale earlier in the day, as No.10 seed Marion Bartoli fought back from the brink of defeat several times to continue her mastery of No.6 seed Anna Chakvetadze, 46 75 76(4). Bartoli saved three match points as Chakvetadze served for the match up 64 54 and eventually won in just over three hours to improve to 3-1 lifetime against the Russian, having also knocked her out of Luxembourg last fall and Stanford two weeks ago.
 
In other matches, No.2 seed Jelena Jankovic ended the run of Canadian wildcard Stéphanie Dubois with a 63 62 win; No.7 seed Dinara Safina continued her strong summer with a 62 62 win over No.9 seed Patty Schnyder; Dominika Cibulkova beat No.12 seed Nadia Petrova, 76(2) 62; and No.11 seed Victoria Azarenka won inwhen Virginie Razzano retired down 76(4) 20 due to a thigh injury.
 
Having taken out Canadian No.1 Aleksandra Wozniak in the second round, Jankovic has now eliminated the Canadian Top 2 in back-to-back days with her win over Dubois. And with Ivanovic's loss, she has another chance to ascend to No.1. She needs to reach the final - champion or runner-up, doesn't matter.
 
"I took out two Canadians - maybe the people here will start to hate me now," Jankovic joked. "In those two matches the crowd was obviously against me. It's not easy to be in this kind of atmosphere, but I tried my best. I really wanted to focus on myself and my game, on what I have to do in order to win. I'm pleased with how I handled it. I'm happy to have gotten through this match."

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