Top seed and defending champion Venus Williams was upset in the opening round of the Cellular South Cup on Tuesday by Czech qualifier Petra Kvitova. Earlier in the day, the tournament's No. 2 seed, Tatiana Golovin, was beaten by American Bethanie Mattek.

Defeating the six-time singles Grand Slam champion 2-6 6-4 6-3, Kvitova won only the second WTA Tour match of her career. Additionally, the 17-year-old, ranked 143rd, played in only her 14 career WTA match.

"She had a good serve and she was left-handed," world No.8 Williams said. "She mixed it up really well. I'm not happy about the result of the match, but she played well."

In the other upset, Mattek, a 22-year-old ranked 131st, played one of the best matches of her career defeating France’s world No.13 Tatiana Golovin 6-4 6-4.

"Honestly, I was really seeing the ball really well and I was there to every shot she hit," Mattek said. "I just stuck to my game plan. My goal was to get on top and get as many points right away as I could. I just came out firing." (source: ESPN, photos: Getty Images)

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Slovakia’s world No.45 Dominika Cibulkova scored a victory of her career today in windy Doha with a straight set win over great champion and world No.7 Venus Williams. Final score was 6-3 6-3.

I expected an interesting match, but for Cibulkova to break hard-serving Williams four times, and hold all except for one of her service games, that was beyond my imagination.

The 18-year-old Cibulkova, the second best Slovakia’s WTA player, was confident, strong, well-adapted to the windy weather, and made few unforced errors. Williams, on the other hand, made too many unforced errors, and quite surprisingly, served no aces. Also, Cibulkova used almost all of her chances, and wasted only two out of six break points, which was not the case with Williams.

At the Qatar Total Open, Cibulkova also made other two significant victories, over world No.39 Lucie Safarova in the first round and over ninth seed and world No.12 Patty Schnyder in the second.

In the quarterfinals, Cibulkova will face Agnieszka Radwanska who advanced without playing her third round match as top seed Ana Ivanovic withdrew from the tournament due to ankle injury she suffered yesterday. (photo via Getty Images)

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Ana Ivanovic defeated six-time Grand Slam champion Venus Williams and reached the Australian Open semifinals for the first time in her career. The final score was 7-6 6-4. Ivanovic’s next opponent will be Daniela Hantuchova of Slovakia who ended the remarkable run of Polish teenager Agnieszka Radwanska beating her 6-2 6-2.

The first set of the Ivanovic vs. Williams match was pulsating, with six consecutive breaks of serve. It was taken to a tiebreak which fourth seed Ivanovic won 7-3. Eighth seed Williams got to a 3-0 lead in the second set, but wasted it with inconsistent play while Ivanovic woke up and the former world No.1 couldn’t stop her from closing out the match. Read more »

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Ana Ivanovic has a chance for revenge as in the Australian Open quarterfinals she clashes with Venus Williams, the woman that knocker her out of the last two Grand Slams, and in straight sets.

Fourth-seeded Ivanovic moved into the quarters with a 6-1 7-6 victory over 17-year-old Caroline Wozniacki. To defeat the Danish teenager, a girl with loads of potential to reach the very top, Ivanovic had to save three break points in the first set and a set point in the second. Read more »

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Venus Williams advanced to the Australian Open third round with an unimpressive 7-5 6-4 victory over France’s Camille Pin.

The former world number one had to come from behind in both sets (from 4-5 in the first and 2-4 in the second) to beat the battling Frenchwoman. Even though Pin defended well, the encounter was close because Williams made a lot of unforced errors and her serve was not remarkable either. In the first set the eight-seeded Williams double-faulted four times, and made 21 unforced errors to Pin's 11. The second set was quite the same story for Williams, two double faults and 23 unforced errors.

Venus Williams next faces Indian Sania Mirza who showed the controversy is not affecting her play as she managed to focus on tennis and advance at the Aussie Open. (photo via Getty Images)

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