World No.6 Petra Kvitova has fallen to Thai youngster Luksika Kumkhum in a major Australian Open day one shock.
Kumkhum, 20 years old and the world No.88, hadn’t won a single match on the WTA Tour before downing Swede Sofia Arvidsson in last year’s Australian Open.
She lost in the following round and hadn’t played another grand slam match since.
That was until Monday evening’s surprise 6-2 1-6 6-4 defeat of Kvitova.
The Czech sixth seed had been considered one of Serena Williams’ main dangers for the Open title.
There was little in Kumkhum’s lead-up form to suggest she was set to pull off such an upset.
The Thai, who plays with a two-handed forehand and backhand, lost in the first round of qualifying at the Sydney International last week.
The defeat was Kvitova’s first opening round loss at a major since the 2011 US Open, which came immediately after she won Wimbledon.
Kumkhum will face German Mona Barthel in the second round.
Kumkhum initially failed to serve out the match at 5-3, before breaking Kvitova’s serve in the next game to win.
She admitted her nerves became hard to control as she closed in on victory.
“Yeah, a little bit. I don’t know how to say, like your heart shake,” she said.
“First time that I play No.6, up 5-3, yeah, sometimes you (get scared) a little bit.”
Kvitova was unable to explain her own disappointing performance.
“Unfortunately I didn’t play well. I didn’t play my game that I really tried all off-season to work on,” she said.
“It was a great off-season, I was really excited to be here, feeling good.
“But I think that probably I wanted too much and then everything just fell down.”