The upset bug bit some of the marquee names at the Medibank International Sydney on Monday. Caroline Wozniacki was among the victims, falling to Li Na in a topsy-turvy three-setter.
Wozniacki, ranked a career-high No.4 in the world and the No.4 seed at the first Premier-level tournament of the year, started strongly against the No.17-ranked Li, taking the first set, 6-2, in just 33 minutes; she even broke for 3-2 in the second set but from there it was all Li, who won 10 of the next 12 games for a 26 63 62 victory.
In their only previous meeting, Wozniacki beat Li in three sets in the semifinals of Luxembourg in October 2008.
Other seeds going down were No.7 seed Jelena Jankovic, who served for her match at 5-4 in the third set but fell to Agnes Szavay, 57 61 75, and No.8 seed Vera Zvonareva, who retired after six games against Elena Vesnina due to a right ankle injury.
"It was my first match of the season and I was a little nervous, and I hadn't played her in a long time. I also hadn't competed in two months," Jankovic said. "I have to clean up some things in my game. I need to stay positive. I hope I'll be ready for Melbourne."
Other winners as the first round came to a close were Agnieszka Radwanska, Flavia Pennetta, Aravane Rezai, Dominika Cibulkova, María José Martínez Sánchez and qualifier Vera Dushevina.
Check out photos from Sydney in the Sydney Gallery!
Pennetta ended the Sydney hopes of Australia's own Samantha Stosur, bursting out to a 4-0 lead and barely looking back to rout the home hope in an hour and four minutes, 63 61.
"Obviously it's not the ideal way to go into Melbourne, but I can't think of it as the end of the world either. I've still got a week to prepare and find my game," Stosur said. "In patches, I hit the ball well and played well. I'll just go out there and practice, and try and play a few practice matches. I want to put in a few really good days and then go to Melbourne."
In the last matches of the day, No.6 seed Victoria Azarenka faced Sabine Lisicki and Nadia Petrova faced wildcard Kimiko Date Krumm.
