We witnessed the first upset in the women’s draw as top seed Karolina Pliskova has been knocked out of the US Open by Caroline Garcia, but Angelique Kerber and Petra Kvitova safely progressed through to the third round.
Pliskova had a dismal start to her second-round encounter with the world No 50 Caroline Garcia and paid dearly as she never fully recovered from it.
She hit just one winner in the opening set and lost it 6-1 regardless. She was also unable to produce the tennis required to secure the second set tie-break and force a decider.
Garcia won 6-1 7-6 (7-2) and the result makes it her sixth career victory over a top-five opponent and she would next face Jennifer Brady in the next round.
The 2016 US Open champion Angelique Kerber who marks playing in her 50th Grand Slam competition had good news to share as she opened inside the Louis Armstrong Stadium in a positive fashion.
She secured a 6-3 7-6 (8-6) result against her compatriot Anna-Lena Friedsam in an hour and 40 minutes and will face either Ann Li or the 13th seed, Alison Riske, in the next round.
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“It’s always special to return to a place where you won,” Kerber says. “It’s a really special place for me, where it all started in 2011, and I’m still here competing. This is what I love.”
Petra Kvitova – sixth seed – played two contrasting sets in order to prevail over Kateryna Kozlova in her second-round match.
She, however, hit 20 unforced errors and seven double faults in the first set which she eventually won 7-3 in the tie-break. In the second, she cleaned up her game completely and made just two unforced errors and no double faults.
“In the first set it was kind of tough,” says Kvitova after the match.
“I was really fighting a little bit the opponent but with myself as well. There were a lot of nerves over there.”
She is scheduled to play Jessica Pegula in the third round. Pegula took two and a half hours to push past Kirsten Flipkens on Court 11.
Japanese tennis star, Naomi Osaka, continued her charge towards a second US Open crown by thrashing Italian Camila Giorgi 6-1 6-2.
Osaka, who withdrew from her Western & Southern Open final last week with a left hamstring problem, walked onto the court with her leg wrapped in medical tape but was barely troubled in the lopsided match to set up a meeting with Ukraine’s Marta Kostyuk.
Varvara Gracheva currently ranked No 102 in the world produced one of the most impressive plays of the day as she came back from a losing position to send 30th seed, Kristina Mladenovic out of the US Open. A third-round meeting with the eighth seed, Petra Martic, is her reward.
Aliaksandra Sasnovich was another to put out a seeded player who pulled an upset in the women’s division as she took just 65 minutes to record a 6-1 6-2 result against the 12th seed Marketa Vondrousova.
Vondrousova’s 21 unforced errors contrasted with Sasnovich’s 10 and she won just 21 per cent of points on her second serve.
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