KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia -- Li Na was too distraught to speak publicly after being ousted from the inaugural Malaysian Open by Tatjana Malek of Germany 6-1, 5-7, 6-2 in the first round on Tuesday.
Second-seeded Li, who became China's first top-10 woman after reaching the Australian Open semifinals, broke Malek with all three chances she had, but lost her own serve six times in the two-hour tussle.
Li and Zheng Jie were hailed as "Golden Flowers" by the Chinese media for their Grand Slam success in Melbourne last month, but have struggled since. Li hurt her back in retiring during the Dubai quarter-finals last week but said on Monday she was recovered and eyeing the Kuala Lumpur title.
Third-seeded Zheng, back in the top 20, lost her Dubai opener but had more success on Tuesday by beating Elena Bovina of Russia 6-4, 6-3.
Top-seeded Elena Dementieva progressed comfortably by beating fellow Russian Ekaterina Bychkova 6-2, 6-1 to start her bid for a third title of the year following wins in Sydney and Paris. Dementieva will next face Serbia's Bojana Jovanovski at Kuala Lumpur's Bukit Kiara Equestrian and Country Resort
Earlier, former world junior No. 1 Noppawan Lertcheewakarn of Thailand defeated Ksenia Pervak of Russia 6-1, 6-4. The 18-year-old, who won the Wimbledon girls title last year and got a wild card into this event, took 93 minutes to beat Pervak.
"I have to train harder as there is extra pressure on me to do well," she said. "The transition from junior to senior is not easy and many past junior champions have struggled to reach a higher level."
Noppawan's second-round opponent will be Magdalena Rybarikova. The seventh-seeded Czech gave Thailand's Tamarine Tanasugarn no chance to repeat her run to the Pattaya final two weekends ago with a 7-5, 6-3 win.
Others through the first round included sixth-seeded Sybille Bammer, Chang Kai-chen of Taiwan, Alla Kudryavtseva of Russia, Chanelle Scheepers of South Africa, and Akgul Amanmuradova of Uzbekistan.
