23/10/2009 10:07 AM
Kim Clijsters suffered a surprise defeat to Patty Schnyder in the second round of the BGL Luxembourg Open.
The Belgian former world No.1, who made a memorable return from retirement with victory at the US Open last month, lost 6-4 3-6 7-6 (8-6) to the Swiss player as her serve failed to fire.
Clijsters had 11 double faults in the defeat as Schnyder moved through to a clash with Sabine Lisicki of Germany.
Fourth seed Daniela Hantuchova earlier came through a tough clash with Lucie Hradecka.
The Slovakian edged her Czech opponent 7-5 3-6 6-2 to book her place in the next stage and was joined by fifth seed Yanina Wickmayer.
The Belgian saw off Alize Cornet 7-5 7-6 (8-6), while eighth seed Shahar Peer beat Spain's Carla Suarez Navarro 3-6 6-3 6-1.
Katarina Srebotnik lost the first set against Anne Kremer but rallied to win the next two at a cost of just two games for a 2-6 6-4 6-0 victory.
Meanwhile, top seed Vera Zvonareva crashed out of the Kremlin Cup second round in Moscow in straight sets to unseeded Bulgarian Tszvetana Pironkova.
Zvonareva, ranked seven in the world, had not met the 126th-ranked Bulgarian before and the defeat has left the Russian as first alternate for the end-of-season Race to Doha.
Zvonareva went into the match ninth in the Race to Doha rankings but Jelena Jankovic claimed the final spot in the season-ending Sony Ericsson Championships next week, with the second-seeded Serbian winning 7-6 (7-5) 6-3 against the Czech Republic's Lucie Safarova in Moscow.
In the match with Pironkova, Russian Zvonareva could only win two games, losing 6-0 6-2 to her unheralded opponent.
There was home joy for Maria Kirilenko, who defeated Canadian Aleksandra Wozniak 6-4 6-3, while Alisa Kleybanova beat fellow Russian Evgeniya Rodina 6-1 6-2, Russia's Vera Dushevina won 3-6 6-4 6-3 against Hungary's Agnes Szavay and Italy's Francesca Schiavone beat Romania's Monica Niculescu 6-2 7-5.