SEEDS SCATTER IN THE NEW YORK BREEZE – A FAMILIAR REFRAIN BY ROS SATAR

Written by: on 31st August 2015
US Open Tennis
SEEDS SCATTER IN THE NEW YORK BREEZE – A FAMILIAR REFRAIN BY ROS SATAR

epa04907002 Eugenie Bouchard of Canada hits a return to Alison Riske of the US during their match on the first day of the 2015 US Open Tennis Championship at the USTA National Tennis Center in Flushing Meadows, New York, USA, 31 August 2015. The US Open runs through 13 September, which is a return to a 14-day schedule. EPA/JASON SZENES  |

Cometh the starting hour, cometh the shocks, so it is written…. somewhere, I’m sure.

 

Ana Ivanovic was the first big shock of the day, as her opener on Ashe ended in a nightmare at the hands of last year’s Australian Open finalist Dominika Cibulkova. With the Slovakian having struggled to return from an Achilles tendon injury that resulted in surgery earlier this year, the 2014 Australian Open champion was definitely an outside pick at best to better the seventh seed from Serbia.

 

Reunited with her former coach Nigel Sears, she started strongly to break right at the start, but Cibulkova is nothing if not scrappy, as she battled back and forth to eventually get the first set. Ivanovic regained a bit of her form to edge ahead and at least level the match, but there her resolve failed her, as Cibulkova raced away from her in the decider, rounding out a 6-3 3-6 6-3 win and sending our highest seed so far (not counting No. 3 seed Maria Sharapova’s withdrawal) out of the tournament.

 

Two-time champion Venus Williams may not have had the happiest time in recent years at the Slam she won twice in a row (2000, 2001), and let’s not forget she made the final on her debut, losing to Monica Hingis in 1997.

 

Despite Monica Puig breaking her in the opening game, Venus looked to be over the viral illness that had cut short her time in Cincinnati, where she withdrew before her match with Ana Ivanovic. She broke twice to seal the first set, and everything really looked in cruise control, once she broke in the second to serve for the match, but her serve deserted her, giving the Puerto Rican a chance to hang in the match and her tenaciousness paid off, as she took advantage of some very shaky serving from Williams senior to level the match. Venus proved though that experience does count, as she battled on to make the second round, 6-4 6-7(7) 6-3.

 

Genie Bouchard finally started to put a rough year behind her, with a win – new ‘consultant’ Jimmy Connors ought to be pleased with her 6-4 6-3 win, with some admirable fighting back as Alison Riske looked to try and take advantage in the first set.

 

Other seeds that went walkabout in the Monday day session were: WTA Rising Star and US Open Series winner Karolina Pliskova, who was humbled rather easily in straight sets 6-2 6-1, and also surprisingly Jelena Jankovic, who having taken the first set comfortably, was bounced out by Oceane Dodin in three sets, 2-6 7-5 6-3.

 

Closing out the day, the one person we thought could give Serena a headache was Sloane Stephens. We need rub out the name and replace it with Coco Vandeweghe, who stunned the 29th seed in straight sets 6-4 6-3. Oh well, it’s still a potential all-American clash, so we’re half right?

 

British No. 1 Heather Watson will have to wait another year to try and get past the first round of the US Open, after bowing out in two tight sets, but ultimately two run-away tie-breaks to USA’s Lauren Davis, 7-6(3) 7-6(0)

 

At the time of writing, our pick to surprise them all, Belinda Bencic was looking in control, and big things are also expected of Madison Keys, if she can keep her emotions in check and embrace playing in front of a home crowd willing her on to another great Slam run, with of course Serena to take centre stage.

 

Day 1 Results

D Cibulkova d A Ivanovic [7] 63 36 63

Venus Williams [23] v M Puig 64 67(7) 63

A Tatishvili d Ka. Pliskova [8] 62 61

K Mladenovic v S Kuznetsova [30] 63 75

O Dodin d J Jankovic [21] 26 75 63

C Vandeweghe v S Stephens [29] 64 63

D Allertova d C Suarez Navarro [10] 61 76(5)

L Davis d H Watson 76(3) 76(0)

E Bouchard [25] d A Riske 64 63

A Radwanska [15] d K Siniakova 62 63

I Falconi d S Crawford 64 62

M Brengle d S Zheng 62 57 75

M Linette d U Radwanska 76(3) 61

B Mattek-Sands d K Kozlova 64 63

M Duque-Marino d S Kenin 63 61

J Pegula d A Van Uytvanck 75 63

K Kanepi v A Friedsam 61 61

A Kontaveit d C Dellacqua 75 62

E Makarova [13] d T Pereira 63 63

E Svitolina [17] E Kulichkova 61 64

P Hercog d Z Diyas 62 75

B Jovanovski d L Arruabarrena 62 62

 

 

Night Match Tidbits

· The bid for the Career Slam starts here – Serena Williams makes her 16th appearance since her 1998 debut, as she bids for lucky number 7 in the night match.

· By virtue of winning the US Open last year, she currently holds all four majors, and christened it the ‘Serena Slam 2.0’, but is bidding to become the first woman since Steffi Graf to scoop all four in a single year!

· She starts with Vitalia Diatchenko, who celebrates a Slam landmark of her own, having made the main draw in all for Slams this year for the first time.

 

Ros Satar is a regular contributor to 10sballs.com and runs Britwatch Sports (@britwatchsports), because we Brits like watching sport. Occasionally we’re good at it.

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