Top seed Agnieszka Radwanska on Tuesday night overcame a slow start and breezed past Jelena Ostapenko 7-5, 6-1 in the second round of the Connecticut Open.
Ostapenko had upset four-time New Haven champion Caroline Wozniacki in the first round and had a set point, leading the fourth-ranked player in the world 5-4. However, Radwanska rallied to hold serve, then broke the 19-year-old from Latvia in the 11th game to take control of the match.
“I think I was just more patient and well, just two points better,” Poland’s Radwanska said.
Before that match, the day belonged to the underdogs.
Kirsten Flipkens of Belgium became the fourth lucky loser this week to win a first-round match, beating Belinda Bencic of Switzerland 6-1, 4-6, 7-5.
The 30-year-old, who upset Venus Williams at the Olympics, had lost in the second round of qualifying. However, she was moved into the main draw after Ukraine’s Lesia Tsurenko withdrew earlier in the day with a right knee injury.
Flipkens had been hanging around the Cullman-Heyman Tennis Center since that Saturday’s defeat just to get some practice in before the US Open. She signed in at 11:30am and found out at noon she would be playing a match.
She dominated the first set over a rusty Bencic, who is coming off a left wrist injury and was playing her second competitive match since Wimbledon.
However, the 19-year-old, who had been ranked as high as No. 7 in the world earlier this year, came back and was up 5-2 in the final set. It was a more poised Flipkens who won the next five games as Bencic lost control, slamming her racket on the court on more than one occasion as the match slipped away.
Another lucky loser, Johanna Larsson of Sweden, beat seventh-seeded Timea Bacsinszky of Switzerland 7-5, 6-2.
The 28-year-old got into the main draw when Russia’s Svetlana Kuznetsova withdrew with a shoulder injury.
Larsson had lost every set in four previous meetings with Bacsinszky, who came in ranked No. 16 in the world.
Olympic doubles champions Ekaterina Makarova and Elena Vesnina of Russia became the first players to advance to the third round of the singles competition.
Vesnina was leading Anett Kontaveit 6-4, 1-0 when the 20-year-old Estonian withdrew with a left thigh injury.
Makarova beat qualifier Anatasija Sevastova of Latvia 6-3, 6-2.
Vesnina is to play Elina Svitolina of Ukraine, who won the last match of the day, 6-3, 6-1 over Evgenya Rodina of Russia. Svitolina is playing some of her best tennis coming off her upset of Serena Williams at the Olympics.
In women’s doubles, Taiwan’s Chuang Chia-jung and Ukrainian partner Kateryna Bondarenko defeated Spain’s Anabel Medina Garrigues and Arantxa Parra Santonja 6-0, 6-1 in their first-round match.
Hsieh Su-wei and Germany’s Andrea Petkovic overcame an early stumble to rally for a 3-6, 6-1, 10-8 victory over the US’ Nicole Melichar and Maria Sanchez.
Additional reporting by staff writer
WINSTON SALEM OPEN
AFP, LOS ANGELES
The US’ Sam Querrey got off to a successful start at the Winston-Salem Open by reaching the third round with a 6-3, 6-7 (5/7), 7-5 win over Spain’s Guillermo Garcia-Lopez.
“It’s been a solid year so far,” said Querrey, who fired 24 aces in Tuesday’s match on center court.
Querrey won 86 percent of his first-serve points and saved nine of 10 break points. He is next to play Viktor Troicki of Serbia, who defeated Kyle Edmund of Britain 6-3, 7-5.
Second-seeded Roberto Bautista Agut defeated Britain’s Aljaz Bedene 4-6, 6-3, 6-3.
Bautista Agut, who has won two hard-court tournaments this year, next faces No. 14 seed Marcos Baghdatis of Cyprus, who eliminated the US’ Donald Young 6-4, 4-6, 6-4.
Third-seeded Pablo Cuevas of Uruguay had an easier time in getting past Malek Jaziri of Tunisia 7-5, 6-1.
Cuevas’ next opponent is to be 16th-seeded Pablo Carreno Busta of Spain, who eliminated Germany’s Jan-Lennard Struff 6-4, 7-5.
France’s Gilles Simon was upset in his opening match for the second year in a row. He lost to Diego Schwartzman of Argentina 7-6 (7/2), 6-1.
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