Taiwanese No. 1 Lu Yen-hsun advanced to the second round of the men’s singles at the Citi Open in Washington on Tuesday, while Sam Querrey also advanced, despite not being at his giant-slaying best.
World No. 71 Lu took 1 hour, 15 minutes to dispatch world No. 133 Austin Krajicek of the US 6-1, 7-6 (7/3) in the US capital.
He saved three of four break points and converted three of seven, firing down nine aces and winning 67 of the 114 points contested to advance to a second-round clash with second seed Gaels Monfils.
Photo: EPA
The world No. 17, who received a bye into the second round, is likely to prove a much tougher obstacle for Lu, who has a 0-2 career record against the Frenchman after defeats in Johannesburg in 2010 and at the Australian Open in 2013.
Eighth seed Querrey beat Bjorn Fratangelo 6-7 (5/7), 6-4, 6-4, while women’s second seed Sloane Stephens was upset by Japan’s Risa Ozaki 6-2, 6-1.
Querrey was feeling confident coming off a trip to the Wimbledon quarter-finals that featured a victory against world No. 1 Novak Djokovic.
Center Court under the lights at the Rock Creek Park Tennis Center was a little different, but Querrey battled back from losing a first-set tiebreak to beat Fratangelo and avenge a defeat at the French Open.
“Even without the Novak win and just coming out it would’ve been tough,” Querrey said. “It was one of those matches I just had to fight my way through and I think regardless of what happened at Wimbledon, it would’ve been tough and I did a good job of getting through it.”
Querrey next faces 11th seed Alexandr Dolgopolov of Ukraine.
Stephens’ tournament was done a year after she won the Citi Open.
The 23-year-old American said it was just one of those matches for her and took all the blame for her defeat.
“I just played real bad. Nothing more, nothing less,” Stephens said. “Just one of those days I was really bad. Obviously, I’m not the first person to have a bad day and I won’t be the last.”
Earlier, fifth seed Eugenie Bouchard was upset by Italy’s Camila Giorgi 7-5, 6-4, marking the fourth time in the Canadian’s past 10 tournaments she has lost her opening match.
Bouchard said she felt kind of out of it from the beginning, when temperatures were in the 30s Celsius, but she put no blame on the heat and instead credited Giorgi for keeping her off balance.
“She kind of plays not like any other player, really — absolutely no rhythm, not long points at all,” Bouchard said. “I found it hard to get my feeling, and get into points and stuff.”
Bouchard said that she was unsure about playing the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, citing the Zika virus.
The Montreal native called herself a “last-minute person” and said she would wake up and decide next week.
In other women’s singles matches, Christina McHale of the US upset eighth seed Monica Niculescu of Romania 6-3, 6-4. The New Jersey native next faces Jessica Pegula, daughter of Buffalo Bills and Sabres owners Terry and Kim Pegula.
McHale continued a strong year that has included twice pushing world No. 1 Serena Williams to three sets.
“I’m putting myself more in matches to have opportunities to win,” McHale said. “I want to stop meeting [Williams] so early in tournaments. It’s nice to see against the No. 1 player in the world that I can hold my own and have chances.”
In the men’s singles, 12th seed Grigor Dimitrov lost 6-4, 6-4 to Britain’s Daniel Evans.
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