World number one Dinara Safina tumbled out of the Pan Pacific Open on Monday at the hands of unheralded teenage qualifier Chang Kai-chen of Taiwan. Chang, ranked a lowly 132 in the world, saw off the defending champion, who received a first-round bye with the other top seven seeds, 7-6 (7/5), 4-6, 7-5 to leave the Russian star down and out.
French Open champion and fellow Russian Svetlana Kuznetsova joined Safina on a high-profile round two casualty list as she crashed to Andrea Petkovic, the German prevailing 7-5, 4-6, 6-3.
"It is disappointing that I didn't play the way I should play in the match. Although I still turned the match around, I had lots of chances in the third set but I just let it go," Safina said. "I think she played great tennis, I just didn't do my tennis on court. She was always on the ball, she was always in her comfort zone. I never threw her out of her comfort zone so it was my fault."
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