Open-Chakvetadze falls at first hurdle

By Pritha Sarkar

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Anna Chakvetadze collapsed to her earliest grand slam defeat in over three years when she was trounced 1-6 6-2 6-3 by fellow Russian Ekaterina Makarova in the first round of the U.S. Open on Monday.

The 10th seed, whose only previous opening round defeat was at Wimbledon in 2005, looked to be coasting toward victory when she romped through the opening set.

But the 21-year-old wilted under a barrage of withering groundstrokes from her left-handed opponent in the next two sets.

Chakvetadze flicked a forehand long on match point to surrender her title hopes after one hour 45 minutes of see-saw action.

Makarova will play either Australia's Anastasia Rodionova or Ekaterina Bychkova of Russia in round two.

(Editing by Mark Lamport-Stokes)