Austrian teen stuns Ivanovic

Source: Agencies  |   2008-8-2  |     NEWSPAPER EDITION

ANA Ivanovic was stunned 6-2, 1-6, 6-2 by 17-year-old Austrian Tamira Paszek in the third round of the Montreal Cup on Thursday, opening the door for fellow Serbian Jelena Jankovic to claim her No. 1 world ranking.

Jankovic, who reached the last eight with a 6-3, 6-2 demolition of Canadian Stephanie Dubois, sits just 88 points behind Ivanovic in the WTA rankings and can nudge her out of top spot by making it to Sunday's final.

Playing her first event since a third-round exit at Wimbledon, Ivanovic displayed little of the form that had carried her to a French Open title in May and victory on the same Canadian hardcourt in 2006.

Even more shocking, the defeat came against an opponent who had won just three matches since the Australian Open and had gone five tournaments without a victory until a first-round win last week in Los Angeles. Paszek had never beaten a top-10 player.

Ivanovic said she had been affected by an inflamed right thumb that was painful enough for her to consider returning to Europe to have it examined by doctors instead of flying directly to the Beijing Olympics.

Meanwhile, world No. 4 Svetlana Kuznetsova advanced to the quarterfinals of the Canadian event with a 7-5, 2-6, 6-4 win over 15-year-old Portuguese qualifier Michelle Larcher de Brito.

Seventh seed Dinara Safina, riding the momentum from her title win on Sunday in Los Angeles, raced into the last eight with a 6-2, 6-2 thrashing of Swiss ninth seed Patty Schnyder. Safina will next face unseeded Slovakian Dominika Cibulkova, who beat 12th-seeded Russian Nadia Petrova 7-6 6-2.