TORONTO: France’s Marion Bartoli and Russia’s Svetlana Kuznetsova suffered shock first-round exits from the Rogers Cup as the two seeded players were eliminated by a pair of gritty qualifiers.
World number nine Bartoli fell 6-3 6-3 to Kazakhstan’s Galina Voskoboeva while world number 15 Kuznetsova followed her out of the 2 million dollar tournament when she was upset 4-6 6-4 6-3 by Romania’s Simona Halep.
Bartoli, who re-emerged as a force this season, had trouble moving around the court and getting her usually strong backhand working against the 135th-ranked Voskoboeva, who is coming off a semi-final appearance at July’s Azerbaijan International.
”When you commit so many mistakes like I did today, it’s really hard to win a match,” Bartoli, the tournament’s ninth seed, told reporters.
”It was really like my game was not at the level I’m supposed to play regarding my ranking. That was the main problem.”
Two-times grand slam winner Kuznetsova seemed in control as she took the first set against Halep but had no answer for the Romanian qualifier, who ended the match winning over 70 percent of her first serve points.
Tenth-seeded Samantha Stosur of Australia overcame a slow start to get past Japan’s Ayumi Morita 4-6 6-2 6-3 and will face the winner of today’s match between Aleksandra Wozniak of Canada and Shahar Peer of Israel. (Reuters)
