Kournikova stumbles out of Indian Wells Masters
( 2002-03-07 10:28 ) (7 )

Anna Kournikova's hopes of a first career title were dashed when the Russian stumbled out of the Indian Wells Masters with a 6-1 6-4 first-round defeat to American Lilia Osterloh on wednesday.

After enjoying one of her best starts to a season having reached three semifinals, including last weekend in Acapulco, Kournikova appeared tantalisingly close to ending tennis's most famous title drought.

But the Russian, struggling to rebuild her ranking after last year's injury-plagued campaign, slipped back into bad habits against Osterloh, committing 11 double faults while slamming easy overheads into the net and spraying ground strokes to all corners of the Indian Wells Tennis Garden.

"Obviously it was not my best day," said Kournikova, whose only other first round loss this season was to Belgian Justine Henin at the Australian Open.

"The match just didn't come together for me. Nothing went right, even in the second set when I started to play better.

"My whole game I struggled, nothing went right."

It was quickly obvious to the sparse crowd sprinkled across the cavernous 16,000 seat centre court stadium that Kournikova was in for a challenging afternoon when she fell behind 3-0, scoring just one point in the first two games and offering up a trio of double faults in the third.

The 20-year-old Russian immediately broke back and for a brief moment looked poised to get into the contest.

But Osterloh, who had not won a match since reaching the semifinals in Canberra in early January after going out in the first round of her last three events, seized control and swept the next six games to take the opening set and a 3-0 lead in the second.

When Kournikova managed to hold serve for the first time in the match at 3-1, a large cheer went up from the crowd and after she broke to get back on serve at 5-4 a buzz began to circulate through the stadium.

But again the resistance was only token as 57th-ranked Osterloh immediately broke back to close out the match, keeping her hopes of a first career title alive.

"I stuck it to her," said Osterloh, taking full credit for the victory. "I forced the issue, she either had to hit a winner or make a good shot.

"I never doubted myself. I just told myself to keep fighting and I'd get my chances and I did."