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Clijsters' run ends with shock upset

Kim Clijsters couldn't bring her hard court form onto the Spanish clay © Getty Images

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Kim Clijsters' climb back up through the ranks of women's tennis has suffered a shock setback at the Andalucia Tennis Experience in Marbella as she lost 7-5 4-6 6-4 to unknown Spaniard Beatriz Garcia Vidagany.

Since returning from a brief retirement, Clijsters has wreaked havoc as a lowly wildcard in many tournaments, taking out big players early in the draw. But now, having returned to the top ten with her tournament win in Miami last week, Clijsters failed to adjust to the clay court and fell at the second-round hurdle.

21-year-old Vidagany is ranked 258 in the world and has earned just US$37,000 in prize-money in her short career, nearly 600 times less than the Belgian's US$17.2 million.

Clijsters, who had her chances in the match, gave credit to her inexperienced opponent. "I feel disappointed with the way I played. I played a really bad match. I felt mentally drained," Clijsters said. "Maybe the change from Miami came too quickly, but I played a good player today. She didn't make any mistakes.

Top seed Victoria Azarenka had no trouble with her local opponent, seeing off Estrella Cbeza Candela 6-2 6-4. No.2 seed Flavia Pennetta also went through to the third round untroubled with a 6-2 6-2 win over Laura Pous Tio.

Seventh-seed Anabel Medina Garrigues lost 6-1 7-6 to Sara Errani, disappointing the home fans, but Carla Suarez Navarro got one back for the Spaniards by beating Polona Hercog 6-4 7-6 in a match with just 40 years of age on court.

Simona Halep won the battle of the Romanians 6-4 7-6 over Sorana Cirstea.

Meanwhile, back in Miami, seeds Elena Vesnina and Melanie Oudin went through to the third round of the MPS Group Championships with victories over Julia Georges and Shuai Peng respectively.

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