Caroline Wozniacki, of Denmark, plays a return shot during her first round match against Ksenia Pervak, of Kazakhstan, during the Brisbane International tennis tournament in Brisbane, Australia, Monday, Dec. 31, 2012. (AP Photo/Tertius Pickard)
BRISBANE, Australia— Caroline Wozniacki’s first trip to the Brisbane International ended in a shocking 2-6, 6-3, 7-6 (1) first-round loss to Kazakhstan qualifier Ksenia Pervak on Monday. After her early exit, she was quick to dismiss speculation about an engagement to golf No. 1 Rory McIlroy.
Wozniacki, who held the year-end No. 1 ranking in 2010 and 2011 but is yet to win a major title, had high-profile support from McIlroy in the crowd and there was a buzz around Pat Rafter Arena amid rumors the pair had become engaged in the off-season.
The 22-year-old Danish player was photographed with a new ring on her left hand as she arrived in Australia last week, sparking speculation of pending nuptials. She explained Monday that the ring was a Christmas gift.
“It was a Christmas present and it fit on this finger and I put it on, and all of a sudden I hear that I’m engaged. But I’m not,” she said. “So, yeah, it’s already twice we’ve had to shut down engagement rumors. Don’t worry, we will let you know if that time happens!”
On the court, Wozniacki raced to a 4-1 lead before finishing off the first set within a half hour. The Dane started to struggle with her serve as she lost the second set and then had difficulty in the third countering powerful groundstrokes from the left-handed Pervak in the first upset result of the tournament.
The 103-ranked Pervak, who lost in the first round at 14 tournaments last year, including Brisbane, started to hit the lines in the second set, showing match sharpness honed by playing in the qualifying tournament.
She was two points from victory, serving for the match at 5-3 and 30-15, but made a series of unforced errors to get broken and let the 10th-ranked Wozniacki get back into it.
Wozniacki held serve at love in the 12th game to force a tiebreaker but Pervak dominated from there, winning the first five points and securing the win with the first of her five match points when her rival missed with a timid forehand service return.
With eight of the top 10 women in the draw, the Brisbane tournament is a good chance to fine-tune for the Australian Open starting Jan. 14. Now Wozniacki will head to Sydney hoping for some decent match practice.
“I fought until the end. Maybe didn’t play my best tennis today, but it’s tough to expect that from yourself in your first match back,” Wozniacki said. “Now I just have to play some practice matches with some of the other girls here and then go to Sydney and hopefully get a couple more there.”
In earlier first-round matches, No. 4-seeded Angelique Kerber of Germany opened with a 6-2, 4-6, 6-2 win over Anna Tatishvili of Georgia and French Open finalist Sara Errani beat Russia’s Olga Puchkova 6-1, 6-3.
Alize Cornet of France advanced to a second-round match against third-seeded Serena Williams with an opening 2-6, 6-3, 6-1 over Australian qualifier Bojana Bobusic, and Germany’s Sabine Lisicki opened with a 6-2, 6-4 win over Lucie Safarova of Czech Republic to set up a second-round match against top-ranked Victoria Azarenka.
In the men’s draw, sixth-seeded Florian Mayer of Germany beat Santiago Giraldo of Colombia 6-4, 6-4. Japan’s Kei Nishikori, seeded fifth, was to play Australia’s Marinko Matosevic later Monday on the center court.