SERENA Williams insisted reclaiming the world number one spot was the last thing on her mind after crashing out of the China Open in the third round. The American takes over the top spot on Monday after Dinara Safina’s shock second round exit to Shuai Zhang in Beijing. But Williams looked far from imperious in defeat to Russian 13th seed Nadia Petrova who stood toe-to-toe with the Australian Open and Wimbledon champion in a 6-4, 3-6, 7-6(5) victory. Serena’s whirlwind season will wind to an end at Sony Ericsson Championships in Doha at the end of October and she was adamant the drama over the number one ranking wouldn’t distract her from winning the season finale for the first time since 2001. “I can be number one for a week on this tour but it doesn’t matter how many Grand Slams you win – it’s more about how many Grand Slams you don’t win,” said Williams. “My goal is just to do well in Doha now. I just wanted to do well here and I tried tonight but it didn’t work out so well. “I ran into a girl today that has never played so good in her whole life. I don’t feel like I ever got into high gear though.” I felt she was trailing me the whole match and had I capitalized on some of the opportunities I let slip through my fingers, maybe I would’ve won.” The American’s temperament was brought into question again as a bad line-call looked like it would cost her the deciding tie-break before it was overruled. But unlike in her US Open semi-final defeat to Kim Clijsters, Williams’ cut a calmer figure this time and was adamant it was lesson learnt. “I honestly don’t know what was going on then,” said Williams. “I know I was grunting and fighting. I’m a very passionate player and I do the best I can in the best manner I can. “Obviously I wouldn’t be very smart to do the same thing. It’s important for people to learn from things they did in the past and I learned I would never do the same thing.” Meanwhile Russian seventh seed Vera Zvonareva did her hopes of qualifying for Doha no harm by beating Italy’s Flavia Penetta in a dramatic 6-3, 5-7, 7-5 match. Zvonareva now faces Marion Bartoli in the quarter finals with the winner of Elena Dementieva and Agnieszka Radwanska waiting in the last four. Elsewhere Guernsey’s US Junior Open champion Heather Watson came unstuck in the last 16 of the Aegon Pro Series $50,000 tournament in Barnstaple. The 17-year old, who is based in Florida, is set to turn professional later this month and celebrated the news with a 7-6(8), 6-2 defeat of British number four Melanie South in the opening round. And although she raced to an early lead against France’s world number 272 Kristina Mladenovic, the Brit couldn’t maintain her advantage and went down 2-6, 6-4, 6-2.
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