Danish fourth seed Holger Rune crashed out of the US Open on Monday, dropping in 4 units to Spanish journeyman Roberto Carballes Baena.
Rune, crushed within the quarter-finals of Wimbledon by Carlos Alcaraz, succumbed 6-3 4-6 6-3 6-2 in slightly below three hours.
Carballes Baena, a clay-court specialist ranked 63rd on the earth who has by no means been additional than the third spherical at a Grand Slam event, will face both Russia’s Aslan Karatsev or the Czech Republic’s Jiri Lehecka within the second spherical.
The defeat was the most recent in a collection of disappointing early exits for Rune, the 20-year-old considered one of many brightest younger skills in males’s tennis.
Since his quarter-final loss to Alcaraz at Wimbledon, Rune has suffered first spherical losses on the Canadian Open, the Cincinnati Open and now the US Open.
The younger Dane, who reached the third spherical of the US Open final yr, had lashed out at organisers earlier than this event, complaining concerning the choice to put his opening sport on Court No. 5 of the USTA’s Billie Jean King National Tennis Center.
Against Carballes Baena on Monday, Rune was all the time struggling to search out his rhythm, racking up 43 unforced errors and seeing his serve damaged seven occasions by the 30-year-old Spaniard.
Swiatek cruises as Sakkari falls
Iga Swiatek launched the defence of her US Open crown with an emphatic opening victory on as Novak Djokovic eyed a return to the highest of the boys’s world rankings on his long-awaited return to the event.
Swiatek, bidding to turn into the primary lady to efficiently defend the US Open title since Serena Williams gained a hat-trick of titles from 2012-2014, wanted lower than an hour to defeat Sweden’s Rebecca Peterson 6-0 6-1.
The 22-year-old world primary from Poland overwhelmed her opponent with 5 breaks of serve and 20 winners to finish victory in simply 58 minutes on the Arthur Ashe Stadium.
“I wanted to start the tournament with everything I was focusing on. I was happy to play a great game, with all the pressure and expectations I was happy on the court,” stated Swiatek after her win.
Swiatek, concentrating on her fifth Grand Slam title, will face Daria Saville of Australia in spherical two.
While Swiatek superior safely, there was no such luck for Greece’s eighth seed Maria Sakkari, who grew to become the very best ranked casualty of early spherical motion, crushed 6-4, 6-4 by Spain’s Rebeka Masarova, ranked 71st on the earth.
Eighteenth seed Victoria Azarenka of Belarus was among the many first girls to guide their place within the second spherical, swatting apart French wildcard entrant Fiona Ferro 6-1, 6-2 in early play on Monday.
Tenth seed Karolina Muchova of the Czech Republic additionally made it safely via, blowing away Australia’s Storm Hunter 6-4, 6-0.
Elsewhere within the girls’s draw on Monday, US teenager Coco Gauff takes centrestage with an evening sport in opposition to German qualifier Laura Siegemund, in search of a breakthrough first main win.
The 19-year-old American arrives in New York in blistering kind after successful titles in Washington and Cincinnati.
In the boys’s draw in the meantime, all eyes shall be on Djokovic because the Serbian star returns to the US Open for the primary time since his defeat within the 2021 last.
Djokovic, chasing a record-extending twenty fourth Grand Slam singles title in New York, opens his marketing campaign with an evening sport on the Arthur Ashe foremost enviornment realizing {that a} victory will propel him again to world primary.
The 36-year-old, whose refusal to get vaccinated in opposition to Covid-19 prevented him from taking part in within the 2022 event, faces France’s world quantity 84 Alexandre Muller later Monday.
A victory will assure Djokovic returns to the highest of tennis’s international rankings, no matter how the remainder of the US Open fortnight pans out.
Djokovic wants simply 20 factors to regain the No. 1 rating after defeating present No. 1 and defending US Open champion Carlos Alcaraz within the Cincinnati Open earlier this month.
Alcaraz, who defeated Djokovic in a five-set Wimbledon last traditional in July, opens his US Open marketing campaign on Wednesday (AEST).
In early motion within the males’s draw, 2020 US Open champion Dominic Thiem ended a depressing sequence of six consecutive first spherical exits at Grand Slam tournaments by defeating twenty fifth seed Alexander Bublik of Kazakhstan in straight units.
Thiem, whose profession has been blown off track by wrist and knee accidents since his lone Grand Slam win three years in the past, gained 6-3 6-2 6-4.
“It took time to get my confidence back in my wrist, now I am back on track,” a delighted Thiem stated in an on-court interview.
“I feel the game is back in place and a straight set victory today I couldn’t be happier.”
In different males’s matches on Monday, American tenth seed Frances Tiafoe and ninth seed Taylor Fritz open their marketing campaign dreaming of ending the host nation’s two-decade lengthy look forward to a Grand Slam title.
No American man has gained a Grand Slam singles crown since Andy Roddick lifted the 2003 US Open.
Tiafoe takes on compatriot Learner Tien, whereas Fritz faces Steve Johnson in one other all-American match-up.
– AFP
Source: www.news.com.au
