US OPEN: Keothavong contemplates future after another Slam defeat

By Sportsbeat staff

ANOTHER Grand Slam tournament ended in tears and regret for Anne Keothavong as the former British number one crashed out of the US Open in the first round.

CRUSHING: Anne Keothavong admits she needs to go back to the drawing board after snatching defeat from the jaws of victory at another Grand Slam (Action Images)

Keothavong admitted she was at a loss to explain the manner of her defeat to Yung-Jan Chan, the world number 77, at Flushing Meadows.

She raced to the opening set in commanding style but with control established, she proceeded to throw it all away - and it's not the first time in a career punctuated with similar scorelines.

Indeed she won just two of the next 14 games to lose 2-6, 6-1, 6-1, meaning she won't join Elena Baltacha in the second round.

"Obviously my tennis is not where I want it to be," admitted Keothavong, who turns 27 in just over two weeks

"I'm not the player I was here at the US Open two years ago.

"I'm going to have to reassess everything and then decide what I want to do."

Two years ago Keothavong's always promising career finally seemed to have shunted onto the right track - as she reached the third round in New York, still her best Slam performance.

By early 2009 she had finally cracked the top 50 and all looked good until a 6-0, 6-0 defeat at the French Open, to then world number one Dinara Safina, knocked her confidence.

Another Wimbledon disappointment followed a few weeks later and she then suffered a serious knee injury after a collision with a net post early in the US hard court season.

Six months on the sidelines have clearly hit her form and confidence is now bumping along rock bottom.

And this performance was even more disappointing that her defeat at the All England Club, when she was leading Anastasia Rodionova 4-0 in the final set, only to lose the next six games in succession.

Maria Sharapova and Jelena Jankovic were both taken the distance in their first round matches.

Fourth seed Jankovic looked to be heading home as 18-year-old Romanian Simona Halep, previously best known for having breast reduction surgery to improve her game, produced some stunning tennis.

But she rallied to progress 6-4, 4-6, 7-5.

Sharapova, who won in New York four years ago but has seen her ranking slid after injuries, came from a set down to beat Australia's Jarmila Groth 3-6, 6-3, 6-1 and Caroline Wozniacki thrashed Chelsey Gullickson 6-1, 6-1.

"I knew I had a tough first-round opponent," said Sharapova. "She came out firing and didn't give me many opportunities. These are the types of matches you want to get through to try and get better."