World number one Victoria Azarenka and number two Maria Sharapova crashed out of the Pan Pacific Open tennis tournament in contrasting styles yesterday.
Azarenka, from Belarus, pulled out citing fatigue, while the French Open champion from Russia went down to Samantha Stosur, of Australia, 6-4, 7-6 (12-10) in the quarter-finals.
But defending champion and world number three Agnieszka Radwanska, of Poland, safely went through, beating 2010 Tokyo champion Caroline Wozniacki, of Denmark, 6-4, 6-3.
Two-time champion Sharapova took a service break lead first in both sets, losing the advantage both times before coming back from 3-5 down in the second set to force a tie-breaker.
Sharapova staved off four match points in the tie-breaker, but surrendered the match on Stosur’s fifth match point.
In today’s semi-finals, Stosur will play Nadia Petrova of Russia, who came back from behind to beat sixth seed Sara Errani, of Italy, 3-6, 7-5, 6-3.