Ana Ivanovic Crashed by 19-Year-Old Alisa Kleybanova in Australian Open

Russia's Alisa Kleybanova

Serbia's Ana Ivanovic

Ana Ivanovic’s hopes of a return trip to the Australian Open final fell apart in a barrage of mistakes on Friday as Russia’s Alisa Kleybanova ousted her 7-5, 6-7(5), 6-2 in the third round.

With 19-year-old Kleybanova constantly aggressive, fifth-ranked Ivanovic lost her serve nine times and finished with 50 unforced errors to just 23 winners.

"It's just great to play a match like this. I'm so happy that I pulled through, because it was not just a normal win. I really felt that I played almost my best tennis today. It was so exciting to be out there," the 29th seed told the official Australian Open Web site.

Australian Open 2009 Update

Australian Open 2009 is under way down under. The tennis has been great with 10th seed David Nalbandian being the biggest casualty to date. He won last week in Sydney and would have been hoping to make a deeper run.

The third round has thrown up some interesting matches with the pick of them being Marat Safin against Roger Federer. This is a repeat of the 2005 semi-final which saw Safin inflict Federer's only loss in the tournament between 2004 and 2007. No other player in Australian Open 2009 is as mercurial as the Russian, so just about the only thing you can be sure of is that Federer will not be taking him lightly.

In the latest Australian Open betting, Roger Federer is at 3.50 with Andy Murray at 4.10 and Rafael Nadal at 4.90.

Over on the ladies' side, Serena Williams and her sister Venus are just about joint favorites. With both sisters on the same side of the draw, an all-Williams final can't happen this time round.

It's still early days in Australian Open 2009 and much is to take place between now and when they start handing out trophies.