Top women’s seeds fall

New York, August 24

The Western and Southern Open lost its top two women’s seeds with number one Karolina Pliskova and number two Sofia Kenin crashing out of the US Open tuneup. Pliskova, who had a first-round bye, slammed down 11 aces but also committed nine double faults in a 7-5 6-4 defeat to Veronika Kudermetova. Australian Open champion Kenin also struggled to get going after the Covid-19 layoff, losing 6-1 7-6(7) to Alize Cornet.

Marketa Vondrousova continued her run of poor form as the 10th seed lost 6-3 6-7(3) 6-4 to Laura Siegemund.

Anett Konaveit moved into the second round with a 6-3 6-1 win over Daria Kasatkina, while Elise Mertens thumped Rebecca Peterson 6-0 6-2.

In the men’s draw, fourth seed Stefanos Tsitsipas eased to a 6-1 6-3 second-round win over Kevin Anderson while David Goffin sailed past Borna Coric 7-6(6) 6-4 into the third round. Grigor Dimitrov beat Ugo Humbert 6-3 6-4.

Rohan Bopanna and Denis Shapovalov lost 4-6 6-7(1) to Marcel Granollers and Horacio Zeballos in the men’s doubles opening round. — Agencies