Phuket, Thailand, November 5, 2009 -- Several surprising results were produced during the first-round play here Thursday at the US$190,000 Phuket Thailand Open powered by PTT on Karon Beach.

Three of the top eighth-seeded pairs were upset in the opening round as defending Phuket Thailand Open champions Jen Kessy and April Ross opened defense of their title by defeating 32nd-seeded Julaluk Radarong and Manerat Udomchavee of Thailand 21-15 and 21-13 in 41 minutes.

Eighth-seeded Simone Kuhn and Nadine Zumkehr of Switzerland, who upset Kessy and Ross in the three-set SWATCH FIVB World Tour gold medal match this past Sunday in Sanya, China, also won their opening match Thursday by scoring a 21-18 and 21-13 win in 30 minutes over Zara Dampney and Shauna Mullin of Great Britain.

24th-seeded Ying Huang and Xi Zhang of China defeated ninth-seeded Jarunee Sannok and Usa Tenpaksee of Thailand 19-21, 21-16 and 15-11 in 58 minutes. Zhang won the inaugural Phuket Thailand Open in 2006 with her Beijing 2008 Olympic bronze medal partner Chen Xue.

Xue and new partner Linjun Ji also posted a break-through victory as the 19th-seeded Chinese tandem scored a 21-19 and 21-17 win in 37 minutes over 14th-seeded Kristyna Kolocova and Marketa Slukova of the Czech Republic.

Top-seeded pairs being defeated in the first-round Thursday were third-seeded Sara Goller/Laura Ludwig of Germany, fifth-seeded Nila Ann Hakedal/Ingrid Torlen of Norway and sixth-seeded Vassiliki Arvaniti/Maria Tsiartsiani of Greece.

Before Goller and Ludwig dropped a 21-18, 13-21 and 15-13 decision in 55 minutes to 30th-seeded qualifiers Elsa Baquerizo and Liliana Fernandez Steiner of Spain, Hakedal and Torlen were defeated 21-16 and 21-11 by 28th-seeded Susan Blundell and Anna Scarlett of New Zealand. Arvaniti and Tsiartsiani were then defeated by 27th-seeded qualifiers Madelein Meppelink and Marloes Wesselink of The Netherlands 21-17 and 23-21 in 43 minutes.

The Russian teams of 22nd-seeded Maria Bratkova/Evgenia Ukolova and 23rd-seeded qualifiers Ekaterina Khomyakova/Anastasia Vasina posted break-through victories over pairs from Germany and Thailand, respectively.