Slovakia’s Magdalena Rybarikova sent top-seeded Simona Halep crashing out of the WTA Tour’s Connecticut Open in one of two second-round upsets on Tuesday at the final US Open tune-up.
Halep, the reigning champ, had her serve broken six times and Rybarikova saved 10 of 14 break-point opportunities en route to a 6-2, 4-6, 6-3 victory at the Connecticut Tennis Center facility.
Second-seeded Petra Kvitova, last year’s runner-up to Halep, cruised past Ekaterina Makarova 6-2, 6-1 to reach the quarter-finals in a match that lasted just 48 minutes on the hard courts.
Photo: AFP
Unseeded Alison Riske became the first player to reach the quarters by upsetting sixth-seeded Italian Flavia Pennetta, 6-1, 7-6 (7/3).
American Riske, who never trailed in the second set tie-breaker, blasted eight aces and was a perfect five for five on break points in the 94-minute match.
“There are a lot of top players here. I’m definitely proud to be the lone American left, and hopefully I can keep it rolling,” she said. “I knew that I had to attack her second serve because she places her first serve so well.”
Photo: AFP
Riske jumped to a 3-1 second-set lead, but Pennetta was able to tie it at 3-3. The players held serve the rest of the way, setting the stage for the tiebreaker.
Riske snapped a four-match losing streak with a straight-sets victory over Casey Dellacqua in her tournament opener. Riske next faces Rybarikova.
In other second-round action on Tuesday, Czech Barbora Zahlavova Strycova eased past France’s Caroline Garcia in a straight-sets, 7-5, 6-2.
Zahlavova Strycova had two aces, went four-for-five on break points and saved 12 of 13 on her own serve in 1 hour, 4 minutes.
Doping fears prevented former US Open champion Emma Raducanu from treating insect bites on the eve of the Australian Open, she said, with players increasingly wary about ingesting contaminated substances. The British player was speaking in the wake of high-profile doping cases involving Iga Swiatak and Jannik Sinner. “I would say all of us are probably quite sensitive to what we take on board, what we use,” the 22-year-old said, recalling an incident on Friday. “I got really badly bitten by, I don’t know what, like ants, mosquitoes, something. I’m allergic, I guess,” she added. The bites “flared up and swelled up really a
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