Three seeds fell on the second day of the Moorilla Hobart International, and most notably No.3 seed Anna Chakvetadze.

The world No.18 Chakvetadze was up in the third set, but Carla Suarez Navarro eventually beat her 7-6(5) 1-6 7-5 in the first round. Suarez Navarro became better known at Roland Garros last May when she reached the quarterfinals as a qualifier. Her win over Chakvetadze is her best career victory.

Chakvetadze was playing her first Sony Ericsson WTA Tour event of the season. In 2008, the Russian lost six of her last eight matches and fell from the Top 10 to where she is now.

Other seeds sent packing were No.5 seed Agnes Szavay, who was defeated by Anne Keothavong 6-3 7-5, and No.6 seed Aleksandra Wozniak, who saved seven match points in the second set but eventually lost to Polish qualifier Urszula Radwanska 3-6 7-6(3) 7-5. (source: Sony Ericsson WTA Tour, photo: annachakvetadze.com)

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Hard-hitting Venus Williams defeated Anna Chakvetadze 7-6(1) 6-3 at the JB Group Classic in Hong Kong, while Vera Zvonareva came from behind to beat Gisela Dulko 6-4 0-6 6-3 which means that Team Americas and Team Russia are tied at 1-1 in the JB Gold Group.

Chakvetadze played well in the first set, but the Russian couldn't maintain her form in the second.

Williams will play Zvonareva and Dulko faces Chakvetadze on Saturday, before a final doubles match.

Just for the record: Don’t forget that Williams crushed world No.1 Jelena Jankovic on Thursday. And by the way, Team Europe captain Jankovic, paired with Michelle Larcher de Brito, lost to Zheng Jie and Sania Mirza 6-1 6-1 in doubles on Friday. Also, Mirza upset Hungary's Agnes Szavay 6-3 6-4, so Team Asia-Pacific beat Team Europe 2-0. (source: ESPN, photo: Ralf Reinecke)

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Anna Chakvetadze isn’t satisfied with her 2008 tennis season. The 21-year-old won one singles title, in Paris that was, and had one runner-up finish, at New Haven (Chakvetadze was 7-0 lifetime in Tour singles finals before New Haven).

In 2007, however, the Russian won four singles titles and finished the year ranked sixth in the world, while now she’s 18th. Still, Chakvetadze is staying strong, looking forward to the new tennis season.

I know 2008 has been a tough year for me, tennis wise. But I just have to learn from it and look forward to a better 2009. I also know for a fact that all athletes, including myself, goes through tough times in there career. Loosing is tough but it’s not the end of the world. You win some, you lose some. As I’ve said "Looking forward to a fresher and better 2009 season : )."

In Chakvetadze’s latest diary entry you can also read in detail about her new look, how she has bangs for the first time in years and what were the reactions of people.

Hopefully with this new fresher look comes with a new fierce attitude and confidence. I already started training again. I tell you it’s not easy. My body is aching and I feel very tired. But it’s all good. No pain, No gain. I pray that my luck will come sooner than I expected.

(photo: annachakvetadze.com)

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Russian WTA players received well-deserved awards from their home country. Dinara Safina, Elena Demetieva, Anna Chakvetadze, Elena Vesnina and Ekaterina Makarova were present at the event. Read more »

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Russian Anna Chakvetadze fell out of the Top 10 in the summer and had lost six of her last seven matches coming into the FORTIS Championships Luxembourg.

Second seed Chakvetadze finally scored victory, defeating world No.83 Mathilde Johansson 64 76(4) in the first round of the Luxembourg event.

Since losing in the final of New Haven in August, the 12th-ranked Chakvetadze has had a string of early losses, four times in the first round (US Open, Tokyo, Moscow and Zürich) and once in the second round (Beijing).

Chakvetadze will next face either 14-year-old British prodigy Laura Robson or Iveta Benesova against whom she scored the before-mentioned first-round win in Beijing. (via WTA Tour, photo: chakvetadze-anna.com)

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