Commonwealth Games tennis champion Anastasia Rodionova has endured a disappointing start to 2011 with a first-round loss at the Brisbane International, falling to Serbian teenager Bojana Jovanovski.
Russian-born Rodionova was left seething after falling 2-6 6-2 6-3 in a tough baseline battle against the rising Jovanovski at Pat Rafter Arena.
Video: watch Brisbane International videos
The defeat left Australia’s women with a 1-1 record after the first two centre-court matches at the Queensland Tennis Centre following wildcard Sally Peers’s three-set upset of seventh-seeded Russian Alisa Kleybanova.
Rodionova, who won both singles and doubles gold medals at the Delhi Games in October, started impressively by swiftly taking the first set.
Photos: latest photos from the Brisbane International
But the match turned around as the world No.64 lost her serve twice early in the second set as 80th-ranked Jovanovski, the youngest player in the top-100, built in confidence.
Following her loss, Rodionova was philosophical in defeat.
“I think overall the match was pretty good. I think I played ok. I definitely didn’t play great. But overall I felt OK on the court,” she told reporters.
“I made a lot of unforced errors. It definitely wasn’t my best tennis today.”
In another Pat Rafter Arena match today, Spanish sixth seed Feliciano Lopez progressed to the second round after his 6-4 7-6(11) straight-sets win over Germany’s Philipp Petzschner.
Lopez will face the winner out of the first-round match between Kevin Anderson and Marcel Granollers.
One more Australian, Jarmila Groth, will appear on Pat Rafter Arena on Sunday afternoon when she plays Spaniard Arantxa Parra Santonja.