Venus Williams, the Wimbledon champion, crashed out of the Australian Open in the first round today, joining Elena Dementieva, the No 9 seed, as a high-profile shock on the opening day of the tournament.
It was the former world No 1’s worst performance since she exited the French Open at the opening hurdle in 2001 and only the third time in 34 Grand Slam appearances that she has failed to win her first match.
Lindsay Davenport, the top seed who won here in 2000, coasted into the second round with an easy 6-2, 6-1 workout against Casey Dellacqua, the Australian wildcard. Maria Sharapova and Nadia Petrova, the Russian duo seeded four and six respectively, also sailed through, as did Justine Henin-Hardenne, who looks in ominous form after winning the Sydney International warm-up tournament.
But there was a fright for David Nalbandian, the men’s fourth seed, who was taken to five sets by Danai Udomchoke, the Thai qualifier, before emerging victorious, 6-2, 6-2, 1-6, 6-7 (4/7) after three-and-a-half hours.
Williams, seeded ten, made a 65 unforced errors in a 2-6, 6-0, 9-7 loss to Tszvetana Pironkova, a teenager from Bulgaria, who is seen as one of the tour’s rising stars. Questions have been raised about Venus’s commitment to tennis with a budding career in the fashion world beckoning, but she insisted she wanted to get back to her best.
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“I just couldn’t pull my game together. I don’t know what happened,” said the five-time Grand Slam champion. “I’m really disappointed, but I feel like in general, I was in good form. It’s the beginning of the year, and I feel like I still have a lot of success ahead of me. It’s just my first event.”
The reward for Pironkova, who jumped from 295 to 94 in the world rankings last year, is a second round showdown against Laura Granville of the United States.
Dementieva fared little better than Williams and will be hugely disappointed with her performance, serving 12 double faults before succumbing to Germany’s Julia Schruff, ranked 80, 7-5, 6-2. The Russian, who reached two Grand Slam finals in 2004, has now failed to get past the fourth round here in eight attempts.
Davenport is fancied by many to lift the title with injury hampering Kim Clijsters, but said she was nervous as she began her 13th Australian Open before quickly settling into her rhythm.
“I was jumping around, ready to go,” she said. “I feel like I have the ability to play well and hopefully repeat what happened last year, and go better,” she added, referring to her loss in the final here to Serena Williams.
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She next plays Karolina Sprem of Croatia.
Sharapova made short work of Germany’s Sandra Kloesel, winning 6-2, 6-1 despite still recovering from problems stemming from a dislocated rib to set up a second round encounter with Ashley Harkleroad, an American qualifier.
Henin-Hardenne pounded Poland’s Marta Domachowska 6-2, 6-1.
In the men’s draw, Nalbandian of Argentina, one of the few players to beat Roger Federer last year, considered himself lucky to remain in the tournament after the scare Danai gave him. “It’s not the best way to start, but it is good always to win,” he said. “I try to do everything. But it wasn’t enough to finish it in three sets.”
Gaston Gaudio, the eighth seed from Argentina, is also through. He was joined in the next round by 13th seed Robby Ginepri and 11th seed David Ferrer, but 1997 finalist Carlos Moya was knocked out.