Serena Williams loses to Nadia Petrova in Madrid Open

Page last updated at 21:03 GMT,

Wednesday, 12 May 2010 22:03 UK 

Williams missed much of the early part of the year through injury

Top seed Serena Williams became the latest big name to exit the Madrid Open after losing to Russia's Nadia Petrova.

Williams, who lost in the opening round last year, got off to a positive start in her third-round tie against the Russian before losing 4-6 6-2 6-3.

She struggled as the match wore on thanks to some relentlessly accurate hitting from Petrova.

She follows Justine Henin, Maria Sharapova, Svetlana Kuznetsova and Dinara Safina out of the tournament.

Williams, who had to work hard to beat Vera Dushevina in the last round, looked down and out well before she sent a forehand over the baseline on the Russian's first match point.

Petrova, the 16th seed, will now meet Czech Lucie Safarova or Romanian Alexandra Dulgheru in the quarter-finals.

But Serena's sister Venus ensured she would go back to number two in the world rankings following her 3-6 6-1 6-2 win over Italy's Francesca Schiavone.

When the new list is released on Monday, it will be the first time since May 2003 the siblings, who have won 19 Grand Slam singles titles between them, have been ranked first and second.

Elsewhere, seventh seed Jelena Jankovic edged a tense all-Serbian second-round battle when she beat Ana Ivanovic 4-6 6-4 6-1.

Both players looked well below par in a match littered with errors and struggled to hold serve throughout.

Jankovic, the world number four and runner-up in Rome last week, will play Spaniard Anabel Medina Garrigues for a place in the quarter-finals.

"Overall, I am not really happy with the way that I played, but a win is a win," she said.

"I had quite a lot of trouble in the first set and I didn't serve well and I wasn't really feeling the shots.

"I was quite a long way from where I was playing the past few weeks but then I just tried to stay as positive as possible."