Shahar Pe'er falls to surprise defeat in Stanford

Pe'er seemed to be en route to her eighth quarterfinal of the year after claiming the first set, but the 100th ranked Govortsova fought back to take the second and third sets.

By ALLON SINAI
Shahar Peer 224.88 ap (photo credit: AP [file])
Shahar Peer 224.88 ap
(photo credit: AP [file])
Shahar Pe'er suffered an unexpected defeat in the second round of the Bank of West Classic at Stanford, California, late Thursday night, losing 4-6, 7-5, 6-2 to Olga Govortsova. The 20-year-old Israeli, who is ranked 18th in the world, seemed to be en route to her eighth quarterfinal of the year after claiming the first set, but the 100th ranked Govortsova fought back to take the second and third sets, stunning Pe'er into submission. Pe'er will, however, remain in Stanford over the weekend after advancing later on Thursday to the semifinals of the doubles tournament with partner Sania Mirza. The Jewish/Muslim duo defeated Akgul Amanmuradova and Angelika Bachmann 5-7, 6-3, 10-6 in the quarterfinals and played Su-Wei Hsieh and Alla Kudryatseva late Saturday night in the last four. Pe'er is the defending doubles champion, claiming the title last year with German Anna-Lena Groenefeld. Govortsova got the first break of the second round singles match in the third game and led 4-2 after six games. Pe'er, however, reeled off four straight games and clinched the first set with her second break of the match. Govortsova broke in the first game of the second set and opened a promising lead. The Belarusian squandered a set point in the ninth game of the set and was broken in the following game by Pe'er, tying the score at 5-5. The Israeli, though, dropped her serve once again in the subsequent game and Govortsova served out the set in the 12 th game. Four straight games for the Belarusian at the start of the third set ended Pe'er's hopes and Govortsova went on to clinch the shock win.