China's Zheng Jie crashed out of Wimbledon after a 4-6, 6-2, 2-6 second-round defeat against the Czech Republic's Petra Kvitova on Thursday.

Zheng's serve unravelled in the final set when the 23rd seed was broken three times as Kvitova, ranked 38 places behind the Chinese No 2, made her extra power tell.

Zheng was hoping to repeat her 2008 heroics when she made the semi-finals.

Right from the start, Zheng looked out of sorts as she lost her first service game of the match.

She broke back in the fifth game of the first set only to concede the advantage again and drop the set.

Zheng briefly came alive in the second set, sprinting to a 4-0 lead and wrapping it up in 29 minutes.

Kvitova had never won a singles match at the championship until this year after being dumped out in the first round the past two years.

afp

(China Daily 06/25/2010 page11)