Ana vanovic crashes out in Montreal

Top-seeded Ana Ivanovic, the world's No. 1, was stunned 6-2, 1-6, 6-2 by unheralded teenager Tamira Paszek in the third round of the Rogers Cup at Montreal on Thursday night.

Ivanovic played with a sore right thumb that was heavily taped and that prevented her from gripping her racket properly.

"You know what, it's definitely very, very disappointing," Ivanovic said of Jankovic possibly passing her in the world rankings. "Not really so much the fact that I might lose it; just the fact that I couldn't perform the best I could here without the pain. And then if you lose it, hey, the other girl was better. But just the fact that I couldn't perform as well as I wanted, that's even more frustrating."

Ivanovic first revealed her thumb injury after her second round match Wednesday, yet she refused to use it as an excuse for a lacklustre performance in a three set second round win over Petra Kvitova.

Ivanovic had an MRI on the thumb that revealed nothing, which she says was originally relieving, but now has the opposite effect because the pain is persisting.

"Now obviously I'm a little bit scared, because the MRI shows nothing, but I still have pain," she said. "They say it's going to go away, but it's already (been) there for 10 days. So I'm going to try and see the doctor now and try to get it out."

Ivanovic's original plan was to leave for the Olympics in Beijing straight from Montreal, but she will now go back to Europe to visit with doctors, though it is too early to tell if the injury will put her Olympic participation in jeopardy.

"I really want to be fit to play Beijing," she said. "That's why I'm thinking (about) going back to see the doctor because I don't want to go through what I went through here, just waking up each day and thinking, 'Am I going to be able to play today?"'


(source AFP, photo/Elsa/Getty Images)