It was a day of surprises at the Ordina Open, starting with No. 6 seed Maria Kirilenko, last week's Barcelona winner, being ousted by Romanian wildcard Sorana Cirstea 75 64.
"It feels very good," Cirstea said. "I always like playing against the top players because you can see where you are and what you have to do. If I lose it's okay, so I always have to learn something. If I win, it gives me confidence and it's good to play these tough matches to help me get ready for Wimbledon."
"It's my second tournament of the year on grass and I really enjoy it. My game fits really well on grass and I had lots of confidence. I knew going into the match that if I played my game I had a chance to beat her. That was the main thing. I played pretty well and I am happy about that."
No. 3 seed Dinara Safina had a good day in Holland. The Roland Garros runner-up eased through day 2 with a win over Camille Pin, 61 63.
But the world of women's tennis continues to be, as ever, unpredictable, as last week's Birmingham stars were showing signs of fading, if only temporarily. This time it was Marina Erakovic's defeat to previous rival Ukrainian, Alona Bondarenko. The two had faced each other in the quarterfinals of the DFS Classic where Erakovic was on a winning streak and beat Alona only to face her sister, eventual champion Kateryna, in the semis. Bondarenko, who was down 63 20, managed to pull back to get her revenge, winning in three sets to beat the Croatian-born New Zealander, 36 64 63.
No. 2 seed Anna Chakvetadze was victorious over German qualifier Angelique Kerber, 63 36 76(1) .
"It was a tough match," explained Chakvetadze, "but for me it was my first grass court match this season. For her, maybe it was a little easier, because she has played a few matches already. I felt like I was playing a little bit about myself especially in the third set when I was up 5-2. I think it is good though that I had such a tough fight. I was actually pleased with the tie-breaker. I played much better in the end."
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