Top seed Flavia Pennetta has crashed out of the first round of the Tianjin Open following a 6-3, 7-5, loss to world No.414 Lyudmyla Kichenok.
The 2015 US Open champion was broken four times during the match, twice in each set. Throughout the match Pennetta was trailing to the Ukrainian qualifier. Losing her second service game of the match, Kichenok quickly opened up a 3-1 lead. Pennetta responded in the next game by breaking back, but was still experiencing issues with her serve as she was broken for the second time as Kichenok eased to take the opening set.
In the second set Pennetta faced at least one break point in five out of her six service games. After another costly falter in her service in the fifth game of the second set, the Italian seemed on course to stage a big comeback as she broke Nichenko to love whilst trailing 4-5, to level the set. The positive momentum was however short lived as the Ukrainian unexpectedly claimed eight consecutive points to grab the biggest victory of her career.
During the match Pennetta could only get 47% of her first serves in compared to Kichenkok’s 55%. The Italian also produced 7 doubles faults and won only 44% of her second service points.
The shock loss has hampered Pennetta’s bid to qualify for the WTA end of year finals in Singapore. Only the top eight players will play in the tournament. Venus Williams could now surpass the US Open champion and moved up to 8th in the race to Singapore if she reaches the final in Hong Kong this week.
