Another Surprising Loss for Seles

Monica Seles’ season took another sharp turn downward Thursday night with a third-round loss at the Family Circle Cup.

Seles, the world’s third-ranked player, dropped six of the final seven games in losing to No. 14 Elena Likhovtseva of Russia, 7-6 (7-4), 6-2.

The early round loss continued a pattern. After reaching the semifinals at the Australian Open, Seles lost round-of-16 matches at the Evert Cup and the Lipton Championships last month.

“The last few tournament, I don’t think I’ve been playing consistently,” she said. “I play some matches well, others I play flat.”

Earlier, fifth-seeded Amanda Coetzer became only the second defending champ to fall before the quarterfinals, losing to No. 16 Henrieta Nagyova of Slovakia, 6-2, 6-3.

Among those advancing to the quarterfinals were top-ranked Martina Hingis, No. 3 Jana Novotna and No. 6 Patty Schnyder.