Elena Vesnina of Russia eliminated her compatriot Maria Sharapova 7-6(3), 6-2 in the second round of China Open here on Tuesday.
As a former world number one and the 12th seed in Beijing, Sharapova was looking to bounce back after crashing out of the Pan Pacific Open last week in Tokyo in the first round, and she did that by beating Pironkova Tsvetana in the first round.
However, the Russian failed to find her rhythm in front of the world number 63rd Vesnina as she double-faulted seven times and her opponent was clear.
Sharapova traded three breaks of serve with Vesnina and entered the tiebreaker of the opening set. The former world number one lost four consecutive points when trailing at 3-4 in the tiebreaker due to several unforced errors.
In the second set, Vesnina broke in the fifth game for a 3-2 lead thanks to Sharapova's double fault in the break point, and she broke again in the seventh game before serving out to seal a spot in the third round.
"She (Vesnina) was really aggressive, she hit the ball really deep today and really consistently, as well. That kind of kept me on the defense, and I was never really able to step in and do things that I do well and never really was able to cut off the angles," said the frustrated Sharapova after making 18 unforced errors.
Sharapova's world ranking is dropped from 15 to 21 after the elimination at China Open. "I'm definitely not as good as I wanted to be," she said, "I didn't really have a great preparation coming into these last couple tournaments. I feel like the last couple of weeks I have just been trying to play catchup."
"I have to regroup and find a way to improve things and get better and look forward to a new season."