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| US Open |
|---|
| Venue: Flushing Meadows, New York Dates: 28 Aug-10 Sept |
| BBC coverage: Live radio and text commentary on selected matches every day. |
Top seed Karolina Pliskova started her bid for a first Grand Slam title with a comfortable win against Poland’s Magda Linette in the US Open first round.
The Czech world number one, 25, was not at her fluent best, making 19 unforced errors in a 6-2 6-1 victory.
But ultimately Pliskova – last year’s beaten finalist – had too much power for her 72nd-ranked opponent.
She hit eight aces and 29 winners to beat Linette, who has only one US Open win, in one hour and 18 minutes.
“I felt a little bit nervous coming out here, especially after last year. But I think I played pretty solid,” Pliskova said.
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Pliskova must reach the final to have a chance of retaining her ranking, with six other women all hoping to overtake her by winning at Flushing Meadows.
She has a lot of ranking points to defend after last year’s defeat by Angelique Kerber, a fact perhaps contributing to a few nerves before Tuesday’s opening match on Arthur Ashe Stadium.
Pliskova moved a break up after both players lost serve in three of the opening four games, then fought off three break points in the seventh game before going on to seal the first set.
After a brief delay when rain forced the roof to be closed, Pliskova broke again in Linette’s first service game of the second set and her own dominant serve – despite a brief blip when he she fought off six break points for a 4-1 lead – saw her through.
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| US Open |
|---|
| Venue: Flushing Meadows, New York Dates: 28 Aug-10 Sept |
| BBC coverage: Live radio and text commentary on selected matches every day |
Croatia’s Marin Cilic won his first match since losing the Wimbledon final, beating American Tennys Sandgren in the US Open first round.
The 2014 champion triumphed 6-4 6-3 3-6 6-3 in two hours and 47 minutes.
Fourth seed Alexander Zverev made it into the second round with a straight-set win over Barbados’ Darian King.
The 20-year-old German won 7-6 (11-9) 7-5 6-4 in two hours and 49 minutes after an 81-minute opening set and will face Croatia’s Borna Coric next.
Spain’s 21st seed David Ferrer lost 6-4 3-6 2-6 1-6 to Mikhail Kukushkin.
American 13th seed Jack Sock was another early casualty, losing 6-2 7-6 (14-12) 1-6 5-7 6-4 to Australian Jordan Thompson in just under four hours on Louis Armstrong Stadium.
French eighth seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga beat Romanian Marius Copil 6-3 6-3 6-4, while American 10th seed John Isner won 6-1 6-3 4-6 6-3 against France’s Pierre-Hugues Herbert.
Tsonga will play Denis Shapovalov in the second round, after the Canadian beat Russia’s Daniil Medvedev 7-5 6-1 6-2, while Isner faces South Korea’s Chung Hyeon.
Sandgren, ranked 105th in the world, had been due to play Andy Murray, before the Briton’s withdrawal on Saturday.
“I feel just a little bit rusty,” fifth seed Cilic said after Monday’s win.
“I need a few matches to get in the rhythm. I was hitting some good shots and then making some unforced errors,” added the world number seven, who will play German Florian Mayer in the second round.
American Sam Querrey, who reached the Wimbledon semi-finals, beat Frenchman Gilles Simon 6-4 6-3 6-4, while Luxembourg’s Gilles Muller was a 3-6 6-3 6-4 6-4 winner over Australian Bernard Tomic.
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#NextGenATP stars set to meet in second round
Sporting a 1970s throwback, Alexander Zverev ended his US Open shift victorious at 2:04 a.m. local time on Tuesday morning. The fourth seed, wearing a striped headband, pinstripe shirt and knee-high socks, admitted to staying up beyond his bed time following a 7-6(9), 7-5, 6-4 first-round win over qualifier Darian King on Arthur Ashe Stadium.
The German will next face fellow #NextGenATP Borna Coric of Croatia, who is currently No. 3 in the Emirates ATP Race To London for one of the eight places at the Next Gen ATP Finals, to be held from 7-11 November in Milan. Zverev has already booked his place, having won five ATP World Tour titles this year – including two ATP World Tour Masters 1000 crowns at the Internazionali BNL d’Italia and the Western & Southern Open. He has a 47-14 match record (22-7 on hard courts) in 2017.
Zverev, who came into his encounter against King with a 1-2 record at the final Grand Slam championship of the year, didn’t have things all his own way as he failed to impose his game, appearing frustrated at times and committed 64 unforced errors.
King, the first player from Barbados to play at a major championship, opened up a 3-1 lead in the first set, which lasted 82 minutes. Zverev was unable to convert set point opportunities on King’s serve at 5-6, 30/40, then again at 6/5 and 7/6 in the tie-break. King held two set points of his own at 8/7 and 9/8, courtesy of flashy forehands, before Zverev closed out at 10/9. A single break at 5-5 for Zverev helped him to the second set, before he broke in the third game of the third set and later saved two break points when serving at 4-3.
Coric defeated Jiri Vesely 7-6(5), 7-6(2), 6-2 in two hours and 28 minutes, firing nine aces.
The Croatian claimed the lone previous clash against Zverev, having prevailed in a deciding tie-break at the ATP World Tour Masters 1000 event in Cincinnati in 2015. The winner will face either 28th seed Kevin Anderson or Ernests Gulbis, after the South African raced past qualifier JC Aragone 6-3, 6-3, 6-1 and the former World No. 10 Latvian defeated Alessandro Giannessi 6-4, 6-7(3), 6-2, 7-5.
Also in this quarter of the draw, 34-year-old Gilles Muller and 35-year-old Paolo Lorenzi will square off in a battle of elder statesmen in the second round. Thirteen years removed from their first meeting, Muller leads the FedEx ATP Head2Head by a total of 3-1. Muller rallied past Bernard Tomic 3-6, 6-3, 6-4, 6-4 and Lorenzi did the same to defeat Joao Sousa 4-6, 6-3, 7-6(4), 6-2.
| US Open |
|---|
| Venue: Flushing Meadows, New York Dates: 28 Aug-10 Sept |
| BBC coverage: Live radio and text commentary on selected matches every day. |
Britain’s Johanna Konta said it was “tough to take” as she headed home from the US Open after just one day following defeat by Aleksandra Krunic.
The unseeded Serb won 4-6 6-3 6-4 against the seventh seed to cause the first major upset of the tournament.
Konta had been hoping to improve on previous semi-final appearances at Wimbledon and the Australian Open.
“It’s definitely not an easy defeat to take – it was a close match,” Konta told BBC Radio 5 live.
“It went to three sets and over two hours. I try to keep a very good perspective on how this sport works and that is there are no easy matches.
“First rounds are always tricky and difficult, regardless of the tournament but I guess especially in Slams, so I think that’s for everybody, not just me.
“My opponent dealt with it and I competed until the very last ball, so I can’t be too harsh on myself in that sense, but I’ve definitely got a lot to improve on, which is also a positive thing.”
Konta, 26, has enjoyed another terrific year, cementing her place inside the top 10, winning one of the biggest titles in the sport in Miami, and reaching the quarter-finals at the Australian Open and semi-finals at Wimbledon.
There was every reason to believe that she would reach similar heights at Flushing Meadows, on her favourite surface of hard courts, but she produced an erratic performance on day one.
After easing into a 4-1 lead, the Briton’s serve deserted her and hovered around the 40% mark, allowing Krunic to take the initiative.
“Credit needs to be given where it’s due and that’s to how my opponent played,” said Konta, who finished the match with 42 unforced errors.
“I felt that she raised her level of tennis consistently throughout the match, whereas I struggled to maintain that and fluctuated a little bit more.
“That’s credit to her for playing as freely as she did.”
Konta had arrived in New York with an outside chance of taking the world number one ranking, but she is now looking the other way and hanging on to a place in the top eight.
That would give her a place in the season-ending WTA Finals for the first time, after she narrowly missed out in 2016.
“The goal is to stay healthy, for one, and play a full season, but also to keep trying to get better.
“I think, if anything, today gives me a great opportunity to do just that, and I’ve got still a few tournaments left in the season, and if Singapore is in the cards for me, then I will take it and be very grateful.
“If not, I will take what comes my way.”
| US Open |
|---|
| Venue: Flushing Meadows, New York Dates: 28 Aug-10 Sept |
| BBC coverage: Live radio and text commentary on selected matches every day. |
Maria Sharapova made a dramatic return to Grand Slam action by knocking out world number two Simona Halep at the US Open.
The Russian won 6-4 4-6 6-3 in front of a sell-out night session crowd of almost 24,000 people in New York.
Sharapova, 30, was playing her first Grand Slam match since serving a 15-month doping suspension.
The 2006 champion needed a wildcard to enter the main draw as she is currently ranked 146th.
When her name was drawn alongside Halep’s in the first round it set up a contest that felt more like a Grand Slam decider than opener.
Over the course of two hours and 44 minutes, Sharapova’s greater pace off the racquet outstripped Halep’s speed of foot, with 60 winners proving decisive despite 64 errors.
“You never know what you’re going to feel until you win that match point, but everything you go through is worth it for this moment,” said Sharapova, who now has a 7-0 record against Halep.
“You sometimes wonder why you put in all the work, and this is exactly why.”
Sharapova goes on to face Hungary’s Timea Babos, the world number 59, in round two on Wednesday.
Sharapova returned from her ban in April but has struggled with thigh and forearm injuries, playing just once since May, and was also refused a wildcard by the French Open.
The United States Tennis Association took a different view, handing the Russian a place in the main draw in New York, and she took full advantage.
John McEnroe had been among those wondering whether the Flushing Meadows crowd would react badly to the 2006 champion, but she was given a warm reception as she stepped on court.
It was Sharapova’s first appearance at a Grand Slam since she lost to Serena Williams in the 2016 Australian Open quarter-final – and she relished returning to the big stage.
“It’s prime-time baby – I love it,” she joked afterwards. “I embrace every moment of it and I love it.”
Halep has three times been on the brink of the number one ranking this year, and was match-tight after playing 12 times on North American hard courts over the last month, but in the end she was overpowered by Sharapova.
The five-time Grand Slam champion edged ahead in a gripping first four games that lasted 27 minutes, and a blizzard of winners brought her the first set.
The same fierce hitting seemed like carrying Sharapova all the way at 4-1 up in the second, but Halep recovered with five straight games to level.
With the error-count growing, it appeared that Sharapova was running out of gas, but after a six-minute bathroom break she returned rejuvenated for the decider.
Once again she raced ahead, building another 4-1 lead, and this time she would not be pegged back.
Halep had saved a remarkable 17 of 22 break points but could only find the net when given a chance to get back on terms, and Sharapova edged home in a dramatic closing game, dropping to her knees in celebration.
“This girl has a lot of grit and she is not going anywhere,” added Sharapova.
Russell Fuller, BBC tennis correspondent at Flushing Meadows
There were smiles and tears as Sharapova celebrated a spectacular win on her first Grand Slam appearance for 19 months.
The 2006 champion’s lack of match practice looked as if it would cost her when she let slip a 6-4 4-1 advantage, but she maintained the aggression in the deciding set and her nerve steadied.
Sharapova was able to dictate the course of the match against the world number two: whatever the rights and wrongs of her being awarded a wildcard by the USTA, this was a magnificent effort and an exceptional match.
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| US Open |
|---|
| Venue: Flushing Meadows, New York Dates: 28 Aug-10 Sept |
| BBC coverage: Live radio and text commentary on selected matches every day. |
Two-time champion Venus Williams was pushed all the way by world number 135 Viktoria Kuzmova before reaching the second round of the US Open.
The 37-year-old American took her second match point on teenager Kuzmova’s serve to win 6-3 3-6 6-2.
Williams has seven Grand Slam singles titles, while Kuzmova was making her main-draw debut at tour level.
Meantime, two-time finalist Caroline Wozniacki beat Mihaela Buzarnescu 6-1 7-5 to reach round two.
The Dane will face Russian Ekaterina Makarova next.
“I didn’t do a lot wrong, she just just stepped it up,” said Williams, who is aiming for her first major since 2008 and plays France’s Oceane Dodin on Wednesday.
Williams, who has not won the title at Flushing Meadows since 2001, reached her first Slam final since 2009 when she lost to Garbine Muguruza at Wimbledon earlier this year.
Victory would make her the oldest female Grand Slam champion in the Open era, and could see her return to top of the world rankings for the first time since July 2002.
Williams is one of seven women left in the draw who could reach top spot, with British number one Johanna Konta’s chance disappearing when she suffered a shock defeat by Serbia’s Aleksandra Krunic.
“I just want to win, and if you win you get the ranking. Winning is all I want to do,” added Williams.
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