Kim Clijsters wasted two match points and was eliminated from the French Open on Thursday, losing to Arantxa Rus of the Netherlands 3-6, 7-5, 6-1 in the second round.
Clijsters, who had won her last 15 Grand Slam matches after taking the titles at last year’s U.S. Open and this year’s Australian Open, failed to convert either match point in the second set.
The two-time French Open runner-up, who was playing with her right ankle taped, made 65 unforced errors in the match and lost 11 of the final 12 games. The 114th-ranked Rus finished with only 22 unforced errors and had only eight winners in the entire match.
Clijsters had her first chance to close out the match against the Dutchwoman when leading 5-2 in the second set, but Rus saved the match point and held to make it 5-3 before breaking Clijsters to get back on serve.
Clijsters then had another match point in the 10th game, but Rus saved it again and eventually pushed the score to 5-5.
With the momentum shifting, Clijsters double-faulted for the seventh time - one of her 28 unforced errors in the set - to allow Rus to break and serve out the second set. Rus, the 2008 Australian Open junior champion, reached the third round of a Grand Slam tournament for the first time.
Kvitova, Radwanska progress
No. 9 Petra Kvitova of the Czech Republic, No. 12 Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland and No. 21 Yanina Wickmayer of Belgium also advanced to the third round, while No. 27 Alexandra Dulgheru of Romania lost.
Kvitova defeated two-time Grand Slam semifinalist Zheng Jie of China 6-4, 6-1. No. 24 Sam Querrey of the United States lost to Ivan Ljubicic of Croatia 7-6 (2), 6-4, 6-4.
Results
Men: Second round: Ivan Ljubicic (Cro) bt 24-Sam Querrey (USA) 7-6(2), 6-4, 6-4; 5-Robin Soderling (Swe) bt Albert Ramos (Esp) 6-3, 6-4, 6-4; Alejandro Falla (Col) bt 20-Florian Mayer (Ger) 4-6, 7-6(4), 6-1, 6-2; 16-Fernando Verdasco (Esp) bt Xavier Malisse (Bel) 4-6, 6-3, 7-6(5), 6-1; 10-Mardy Fish (USA) bt Robin Haase (Ned) 7-6(1), 6-2, 6-1; Lukasz Kubot (Pol) bt Carlos Berlocq (Arg) 6-3, 7-6(4), 6-3;
30-Guillermo Garcia-Lopez (Esp) bt Marsel Ilhan (Tur) 6-4, 1-6, 6-2, 4-6, 13-11; 17-Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (Fra) bt Igor Andreev (Rus) 6-3, 7-6(4), 6-3; 14-Stanislas Wawrinka (Sui) bt Thomas Schoorel (Ned) 6-3, 6-2, 6-4.
2-Novak Djokovic (Srb) bt Victor Hanescu (Rou) 6-4, 6-1, 2-3 retired; 13-Richard Gasquet (Fra) bt Marcel Granollers (Esp) 4-6, 6-3, 6-2, 6-4; Fabio Fognini (Ita) bt Stephane Robert (Fra) 6-2, 6-1, 6-0; 12-Mikhail Youzhny (Rus) bt Mikhail Kukushkin (Kaz) 6-3, 7-5, 6-4; Albert Montanes (Esp) bt Ruben Ramirez Hidalgo (Esp) 6-7(5), 6-4, 6-1, 6-2; 23-Thomaz Bellucci (Bra) bt Andreas Seppi (Ita) 6-1, 6-2, 6-4.
Women: Second round: Sorana Cirstea (Rom) bt 27-Alexandra Dulgheru (Rom) 6-2, 7-5; 9-Petra Kvitova (Cze) bt Zheng Jie (Chn) 6-4, 6-1; 21-Yanina Wickmayer (Bel) bt Ayumi Morita (Jpn) 6-4, 7-5; 12-Agnieszka Radwanska (Pol) bt Sania Mirza (Ind) 6-2, 6-4; Arantxa Rus (Ned) bt 2-Kim Clijsters (Bel) 3-6, 7-5, 6-1; 6-Li Na (Chn) bt Silvia Soler-Espinosa (Esp) 6-4, 7-5; Vania King (USA) bt Elena Baltacha (Gbr) 4-6, 6-1, 6-4; 25-Maria Kirilenko (Rus) bt Chanelle Scheepers (Rsa) 6-1, 6-4; Yung-Jan Chan (Tpe) bt Jill Craybas (USA) 6-1, 6-4.
3-Vera Zvonareva (Rus) bt Sabine Lisicki (Ger) 4-6, 7-5, 7-5; Francesca Schiavone (Ita) bt Vesna Dolonts (Rus) 6-1, 6-2.
11-Marion Bartoli (Fra) bt Olga Govortsova (Blr) 6-4, 6-7(1), 6-2.
Men's doubles: First round: Marcel Granollers (Esp) & Feliciano Lopez (Esp) bt Somdev Devvarman (Ind) & Yen-Hsun Lu (Tpe) 6-3, 6-4; 3-Leander Paes (Ind) & Mahesh Bhupathi (Ind) bt Tommy Haas (Ger) & Philipp Petzschner (Ger) 2-6, 6-3, 6-2.
Mixed doubles: First round: 7-Leander Paes (Ind) & Iveta Benesova (Cze) bt Grigor Dimitrov (Bul) & Aravane Rezai (Fra) 6-3, 6-1; 5-Mahesh Bhupathi (Ind) and Jie Zheng (Chn) bt Petra Kvitova (Cze) & Sergiy Stakhovsky (Ukr) 6-7(3), 6-0, 10-8.
