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Women stars exit in a hurry

Plus: Lansdorp & Chakvetadze; San Diego revived?; Nadal, Roddick

By Matthew Cronin, TennisReporters.net

A DAY OF FULL OF UPSETS
SAY HELLO TO THE QUARTERS	SO LONG, SEED
Mal Taam/MALTphoto	Mal Taal/MALTphoto
Anne-Marie Stark	Anne-Marie Stark
Mal Taal/MALTphoto	Mal Taal/MALTphoto
Mal Taal/MALTphoto	Anne-Marie Stark
Anne-Marie Stark	Mal Taal/MALTphoto
Mal Taal/MALTphoto	Mal Taal/MALTphoto

FROM THE PACIFIC LIFE OPEN AT INDIAN WELLS – No player seemed particularly surprised after six higher seeds were sent scurrying for an early flight to Miami, but in Sony Ericsson WTA Tour history, there haven't been too many occasions when that many big names all went down in succession at a Tier I tournament.

The most harrowing defeat of the day went to top-ranked Maria Sharapova, who lost her No. 1 ranking to Justine Henin after mentally disappearing in a 4-6, 7-5, 6-1 defeat to Vera Zvonareva.

The most frustrating defeat went to Martina Hingis, who in her great moments looks more capable than Daniela Hantuchova, but in her numerous lesser ones looks a good deal worse and lost to the Slovak once again 6-4, 6-3.

Then there was fourth-seed Nadia Petrova, who retired due to heat illness behind 6-2, 1-0 to France's Tatiana Golovin and essentially said her body had failed her, even though she might have gone on. But given how much hell Tati gives her, why bother?

Then there was No. 12 Li Na who knocked off a stumbling No. 7 Jelena Jankovic 6-3, 7-6(1), followed by 11th-seed Shahar Peer, who bullied a highly inaccurate Anna Chakvetadze 6-4, 7-6(2).

Finally, the mother of the tournament, Sybille Bammer of Austria, took down No. 10 Ana Ivanovic of Serbia 6-7(6), 6-0, 6-3.

Only No. 2 Svetlana Kuznetsova, a 6-2, 6-2 winner over Ai Sugiyama, and No. 6 Nicole Vaidisova, a 4-6, 6-3, 6-2 winner over Marion Bartoli, survived.

How about that for a massive loss of drawing cards?

Hantuchova wasn't stunned by the results, saying that the heat, flying balls and spacious court gets the best of many players.

Hingis was surprised. Yes, there depth in women's tennis is much better now, but it's not fathomless, as evidenced by the year-to-year results at the Slams, when the cream almost always rises to the top. Hingis says that the usually the case at the Tier Is, too.

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