Ivanovic crashes out of US Open

Top seed Ana Ivanovic was stunned at the US Open as she was defeated 6-3 4-6 6-3 by Julie Coin in the second round.

Ranked 188th in the word, Frenchwoman Coin recorded eight aces and benefited from 34 unforced errors by Ivanovic to bounce the Serb from the tournament.

Hampered by a thumb injury that kept her out of the Beijing Olympics, Ivanovic pulled out a 6-1 4-6 6-4 victory over Russian Vera Dushevina on Tuesday in the first round.

The 20-year-old Ivanovic is one of three women – along with Jelena Jankovic and Maria Sharapova – to hold the top spot in the rankings since last year’s US Open winner, Justine Henin, retired in May.

“I was nervous going onto the court because I never saw (Coin) play before, so I didn’t know what to expect,” Ivanovic said. “I thought I can slowly get into the match, and she played completely different than I expected - she was serving extremely well and hitting very powerful shots.”

Although she improved to just 19-18 this season, Coin played like a seasoned champion at Arthur Ashe Stadium. Conversely, Ivanovic’s play left much to be desired as she double-faulted at key moments of the third set.

But Coin admitted that she was a bit anxious when she was serving for the match.

“Well, yeah, yeah, I did kind of (get nervous),” she said. “I was hoping (to put) my first serve in, and then I missed it and I was like, ’Oh, shoot.’ I have to put the second serve.”

Coin’s next opponent is number 32 Amelie Mauresmo of France, who rallied for a 2-6 6-4 6-0 triumph over Kaia Kanepi of Estonia.

Serena and Venus Williams both disposed of their second-round opponents at the US Open just as easily as their first.

Seventh-seeded Venus needed less than an hour to dispatch Paraguay’s Rossana De Los Rios 6-0 6-3 in the year’s final major championship, while number four Serena cruised past Russia’s Elena Vesnina 6-1 6-1 in just 58 minutes.

Seeking her eighth major championship, Venus did not face a break point and converted four of the eight she had en route to the easy victory. De Los Rios had no answer to the power of her opponent, who won 81 percent of points on her first serve and cracked 17 winners.

“I think I just had a lot more power than she did today,” Venus said. “She plays a game where she hits a lot of high balls. ... I think it would be effective against a lot of players, but with my height and my reach, it doesn’t phase me as much. I think that helped me.”

Up next for Venus is number 27 Alona Bondarenko of the Ukraine, who defeated German Sabine Lisicki 6-4 1-6 6-4 on Thursday.

The 26-year-old Serena seemed to be playing at half speed in this match, especially in the second set, where she took a 5-1 lead but missed an easy winner on her first match point. She jumped up and down as if to reprimand herself for a lack of concentration and eventually battled through two deuces to close out Vesnina under the one-hour mark.

Serena next will take on the 30th-seeded Ai Sugiyama of Japan, who ousted Belarus’ Olga Govortsova 4-6 7-6 (7/4) 6-1. A matchup with Venus would come in the quarterfinals.

Russian Dinara Safina, the sixth seed, continued to build off the momentum of her silver-medal performance at the Beijing Olympics when she defeated Italy’s Roberta Vinci 6-4 6-3.

Number nine Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland, a quarterfinalist at Wimbledon who defeated Colombia’s 19-year-old Mariana Duque Marino 6-0 7-6 (7/3).

Russian Nadia Petrova, the 19th seed, also advanced with a 6-4 6-2 victory over Tapei’s Su-Wei Hsieh. Two seeded players fell Thursday, including number 20 Nicole Vaidisova of the Czech Republic, who was ousted by France’s Severine Bremond 7-5 6-3. Thirteenth seed Agnes Szavay of Hungary was eliminated by Italy’s Tathiana Garbin 5-7 6-2 6-3.

Number 16 Flavia Pennetta, number 17 Alize Cornet and number 18 Dominika Cibulkova were the other seeded players to advance.