Defending champion Samantha Stosur was close to joining Yaroslava Shvedova in achieving a golden set, but at 4-0 40-0 in the first set, the Australian double faulted and spoiled the opportunity. Still, nothing can diminish her perfect start of title defense, as the seventh seed needed just 51 minutes to beat Petra Martic 6-1 6-1 in the first round of the US Open.
As I write this, only ten women’s singles matches have finished and two Germans, two seeded Germans, are already out – No.18 seed Julia Goerges and No.16 seed Sabine Lisicki.
Kristyina Pliskova took Goerges out 7-6(4) 6-1. The world No.125 Pliskova, 20 years old, has qualified for the US Open for the firs time. Goerges hasn’t won more than two matches per tournament since losing the Dubai final to Agnieszka Radwanska in February, while this is her first first-round Grand Slam exit since Wimbledon 2010, when she was ranked 72nd.
As for Lisicki, her US Open loss came at the hands of Sorana Cirstea, who is now 4-0 head-to-head against Lisicki. After an up-and-down three-setter, Cirstea came out on top 4-6 6-2 6-2.
Another German, Andrea Petkovic, whose comeback is still very fresh, is in action today. At the moment, she trailing Romina Oprandi 1-5 in the first set.
So far this Monday, one more seed went out – No.27 Anabel Medina Garrigues fell to Lucie Hradecka 6-3 6-3.
Update: Andrea Petkovic lost to Romina Oprandi 6-2 7-5, while all the seeds in action on Day 1, besides the three previously mentioned, advanced to the second round. (photo: © Neal Trousdale)
Lisicki and Cirstea are two of my favorite players. Sori slaughtered Sabine. It was the worst of many matches I saw Lisicki play. Terrible serving and not hitting the lines were her two problems. It should have been a straight set win for Sorana, but a horrible line call in the first set when Cirstea was leading 4-2 caused her to lose concentration. She bitched at that lineman for the next 4 games and lost them all. She finally got over it at the start of set #2. The 3 hour rain delay didn’t help Lisicki at all. She was just as bad after the delay as before. These are two of the nicest players in tennis!!