Venus has never won a match in the tournament

Venus Williams crashed out of the Rogers Cup in Toronto after a shock 1-6 7-5 6-4 loss to qualifier Kateryna Bondarenko in the second round.

The number three seed, who had a bye in the first round, raced through the first set, but the Ukrainian showed tremendous fighting spirit to level.

Bondarenko then broke the five-time Wimbledon champion's serve in the ninth game of the third set and held on.

In the first round, Kim Clijsters beat Britain's Elena Baltacha 6-3 6-4.

Clijsters, who has returned to the sport after a two-year absence, was too strong for the British qualifier and wrapped up victory in 68 minutes.

Bondarenko just really started playing well and unfortunately I made too many errors Venus Williams

"I still feel like I have a long road ahead of me to get back to where I was," said the Belgian former world number one.

"But it's a challenge and that's why I decided to come back to see if I can still make myself get up there.

"It's a big challenge but it's one I really look forward but I definitely still have a lot of work to do."

Williams remains winless in the tournament, which she previously played in 1995 and 1997.

Bondarenko, ranked 64th, had not taken a set off Williams in two previous match-ups, including at Wimbledon this year.

"I guess at this tournament I've never had a lot of luck but I guess you have to make your own luck these days," said Williams.

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"Bondarenko just really started playing well and unfortunately I made too many errors. She kept a lot of balls in play and ran a lot of balls down. I was expecting to play well and go far in the tournament."

Russian sixth seed Svetlana Kuznetsova also crashed out in the second round, losing 6-4 6-3 to Australian Samantha Stosur.

In the first round, Serbia's Ana Ivanovic recorded a 2-6 6-3 6-2 victory over Magdalena Rybarikova of Slovakia.

Ivanovic, the number 11 seed, got off to a poor start but eventually got into her stride to secure herself a second-round meeting with Lucie Safarova, who beat Kaia Kanepi 6-4 7-6.

"I felt my movement, my shots, everything was working well, but I was trying to play a little too safe," said Ivanovic. "Magdalena is a good player and she was playing really aggressive."

Number 16 seed and last year's runner-up Dominika Cibulkova is safely through after she dispatched Sara Errani 6-4 6-2.

Zheng Jie of China beat Elena Vesnina 6-3 6-2, Alla Kudryavtseva beat Julie Coin 2-6 6-1 7-6 and Shahar Peer saw off Monica Niculescu 6-4 4-6 7-6.

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