Rubin stuns Serena Williams at L.A. Open

Serena Williams suffered only her fourth defeat of the year when she was beaten 6-2, 4-6, 7-5 by Chanda Rubin in the quarter-finals of the Los Angeles Open on Friday.

Second seed Jennifer Capriati also suffered an upset loss, going down 6-3 6-3 to Ai Sugiyama of Japan.

Williams, who also lost at the same stage last year after claiming the title in 1999 and 2000, rarely showed the form that enabled her to win the French Open and Wimbledon titles.

the top seed struggled right from the start against the recent Eastbourne champion, and failed to close out the match after leading 4-1 in the third set to record her first loss since falling to Justine Henin at the German Open in May.

Rallying steadily and often running Williams along the baseline, Rubin also served consistently well and dominated the opening set, taking it in just 22 minutes.

Although the second set was more closely contested, Rubin kept herself in contention for the biggest win of her career, but suffered a crisis when serving at 4-3.

She held five points to lead 5-3, but served two consecutive double-faults and went on to drop her serve as Williams levelled at 4-4.

Williams then snatched the remaining two games of the set for the loss of just one point, and a fifth double-fault from Rubin alowed Williams to break for 2-0 in the third.

Williams went on to build a 4-1 lead and appeared to be on the way to victory, before Rubin rallied and broke Williams twice to lead 5-4.

She failed to serve out for match at her first attempt, but held her nerve, broke for 6-5, and finally closed out the two hour eight minute match when a desperate Williams netted a forehand.

"In the whole match I couldn't get my rhythm. My technique wasn't right. I just could not get the shot I wanted to hit," Williams said.

BIT RUSTY

Williams will play in Montreal next week as her final warm-up for the U.S. Open.

"Maybe I was a bit rusty. Maybe I didn't practice hard enough.

"But this isn't a set-back. I'm still number one. I'm still planning on getting that (U.S.) Open, so it doesn't really matter to me."

Williams acknowledged that Rubin had played a good match.

"She had to play great tennis to beat me," she said.

"Anyone has to play great to beat me, so obviously I think she played really, really well. She's cut back a lot on her errors."

Rubin was thrilled at her first victory over a number one ranked player.

"This is a great step for me," she said. "I wanted to go out and be aggressive when I had my opportunities, and to serve well and be quick off of her serve.

"So it was a combination of things. Once I got into the points and into the rallies I felt pretty good."

Rubin will next play fourth seed Jelena Dokic, who recovered from a slow start to beat Rita Grande 6-4 6-1.

Grande led 4-2 in the first set but Dokic then used her deep groundstrokes to dominate, winning nine straight games to take the first set and build a 5-0 lead in the second.

LATE TUSSLE

Capriati confessed that she felt flat after being stretched for over two hours in a late tussle with Tamarine Tanasugarn the night before.

"I'm sure it had something to do with it," she said. "I just came out flat and couldn't get it going. I was missing a lot of easy shots, shots that I hadn't been missing.

"I definitely wasn't there today, not moving as nearly as well as I have been."

Sugiyama played a doubles match after Capriati had finished the previous night and still felt fresh and ready for battle.

She was also inspired by Rubin's win over Williams.

"Physically I was feeling great this morning and I was really relaxed the whole match. I don't know where that came from," Sugiyama said.

"I was very calm and didn't feel nervous at all. I was hitting the ball pretty deep and was able to rally with her.

"I don't think she expected that and wasn't ready for it and so she made a lot of errors."