Favorites Rafael Nadal and Serena Williams, with 28 Grand Slam titles between them, cruised into the US Open on Monday, but 17-time major winner Roger Federer was thwarted by rain.
Nadal, the second-seeded 2010 champion who watched last year’s US Open from his home in Spain as he endured a seven-month injury layoff, cruised to a 6-4, 6-2, 6-2 win over Ryan Harrison of the US to record a 16th win on hard courts this year.
The 27-year-old Spaniard has captured nine trophies since his return from injury in February, building up a 54-3 record in the process, and he went into New York having won back-to-back Masters titles in Montreal and Cincinnati, comfortably erasing his shock first-round exit at Wimbledon.
Photo: AFP
“It’s a special emotion to be back in New York. It’s a special atmosphere,” said Nadal, who next tackles either Canada’s Vasek Pospisil or Brazilian qualifier Rogerio Dutra Silva.
Defending women’s champion Serena Williams, a four-time winner, needed just an hour to see off Italian veteran Francesca Schiavone 6-0, 6-1.
The top seed fired 13 winners and broke the former French Open champion six times on her way to a second-round match against Kazakhstan’s Galina Voskoboeva.
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“I’m really excited,” Williams said. “I knew playing a former Grand Slam champion the first round was a tough draw, so I just tried to be super serious.”
Venus Williams, the back-to-back champion in 2000 and 2001, and the oldest woman left in the draw at 33, started her 15th US Open with a 6-1, 6-2 win over Belgian 12th seed Kirsten Flipkens, a semi-finalist at Wimbledon.
Venus Williams, ranked 60th in the world, next faces China’s Zheng Jie after avenging a loss to Flipkens in Toronto earlier this month.
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“It’s just good to be here, see familiar faces since my first time in 1997 with the beads and the braces,” Venus Williams said.
Federer, the former five-time champion seeded a lowly seventh, was due to take on Slovenia’s Grega Zemjla in the late match, but heavy late evening rain meant the Swiss star, still bruised by his second-round loss at Wimbledon — his worst All England Lawn Tennis Club defeat in a decade — would have to try again yesterday.
However, there were no such problems for Spanish fourth seed David Ferrer, a semi-finalist in 2007 and last year, who defeated teenage Australian qualifier Nick Kyrgios 7-5, 6-3, 6-2 and next faces compatriot Roberto Bautista.
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British qualifier Daniel Evans, the world No. 179, stunned Japanese 11th seed Kei Nishikori 6-4, 6-4, 6-2 in the day’s biggest shock.
The 23-year-old Evans had never won a main draw match at a Grand Slam until Monday and his reward is a second-round clash against Australia’s Bernard Tomic, who needed five sets to see off Albert Ramos of Spain.
Monday’s win guaranteed Evans at least US$53,000 — US$10,000 more than he has made in all of this year so far.
“I really want to be top 100, so that’s when the money will start to come in, is when I’m top 100 consistently,” Evans said. “It is an added bonus, but it would be a bit strange if I was just thinking about the money after I’ve just beat the 11th seed.”
Fernando Verdasco, the 27th-ranked Spaniard, was beaten by Croatia’s Ivan Dodig 6-3, 7-5, 1-6, 4-6, 6-3.
Latvian 30th seed Ernests Gulbis also went out, losing 3-6, 6-3, 1-6, 7-6 (7/4), 6-4 to Austria’s Andreas Haider-Maurer.
Polish women’s third seed Agnieszka Radwanska, who has never gotten beyond the round-of-16, eased past Silvia Soler-Espinosa 6-1, 6-2 and next faces another Spaniard, Maria Teresa Torro-Flor.
Chinese fifth seed Li Na also reached the second round with a 6-2, 6-2 win over Olga Govortsova of Belarus. Li next plays Sofia Arvidsson of Sweden.
Laura Robson, the first British woman to be seeded at a major for 26 years, won nine games in succession to beat Spanish veteran Lourdes Dominguez Lino 7-5, 6-0.
The 30th seed next faces France’s Caroline Garcia.
There was also an emotional win for Russia’s Alisa Kleybanova, with the former world No. 20 beating Monica Puig of Puerto Rico 6-4, 3-6, 7-5 in her first match at a major since beating cancer.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
Rafael Nadal on Wednesday said the upcoming French Open would be the moment to “give everything and die” on the court after his comeback from injury in Barcelona was curtailed by Alex de Minaur. The 22-time Grand Slam title winner, back playing this week after three months on the sidelines, battled well, but eventually crumbled 7-5, 6-1 against the world No. 11 from Australia in the second round. Nadal, 37, who missed virtually all of last season, is hoping to compete at the French Open next month where he is the record 14-time champion. The Spaniard said the clash with De Minaur was
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but