Clijsters handed surprise defeat in San Diego
( 2001-08-02 09:50 ) (7 )

Kim Clijsters was brought back down to earth with a bump three days after winning the Bank of the West Classic, going down 6-3 6-3 to Japan's Ai Sugiyama at the US$750,000 Acura Classic on Wednesday.

The 18-year-old Belgian was outplayed in her opening match of the tournament as she failed to reproduce the form she showed to beat Lindsay Davenport in three sets in the Bank of the West final.

Fifth seed Clijsters was unable to find her range with her lethal groundstrokes against world No. 48 Sugiyama, who as usual kept her errors to a minimum.

"I didn't played bad, but she didn't make unforced errors and played very well," said Clijsters.

"I just played a final on Sunday. It was different here because the court was different and I had to get used to it.

"I'm disappointed that I lost but I'm pretty happy the way I played. I didn't play bad. She returns really well and likes to attack."

Sugiyama, 25, has had some notable scalps in the past, having beaten Mary Pierce at the 2000 Australian Open and former world No. 1 Steffi Graf at this event three years ago.

Sugiyama now meets Australian Nicole Pratt in the third round.

Number 13 seed Arantxa Sanchez Vicario of Spain also went out, losing 6-1 6-4 to Czech teenager Daja Bedanova.