French champ departs Open
French Open champion Jelena Ostapenko is out of the US Open, losing in the third round 6-3 6-2 to Russian Daria Kasaktina after hitting 38 unforced errors yesterday.
The Latvian 12th seed, who broke into the limelight in June when she blasted her way to the Roland Garros title, got off to a fast start but the unseeded Kasaktina mixed her game with sliced backhands and chopped forehands to slow her opponent down.
The plan worked as, after winning the first three games, Ostapenko grew frustrated and bowed out when she netted a backhand on the second match point at the end of a lungbusting rally.
Ostapenko complained of nausea and illness during the match.
“In the beginning, I was a little bit nervous but I tried to stay focused and play my game and it paid off,” said Kasaktina, who faces Estonian qualifier Kaia Kanepi for a place in the quarter-finals.
Karolina Pliskova showed the steel of a world No 1 as she fought off a match point to claim a riveting 3-6 7-5 6-4 comeback win over Zhang Shuai.
Pliskova, runner-up at Flushing Meadows last year, would have lost her world No 1 ranking had she been beaten on Arthur Ashe Stadium but instead moved another step closer to a first career grand slam title.
China’s Zhang was the more aggressive from the start, frequently rushing to the net and stepping into the court to attack Pliskova’s second serve.
The strategy paid off as she broke Pliskova in her first two service games to take a 3-1 lead and captured the first set with an emphatic overhead smash.
She continued her fiery play into the second set but was unable to convert a break point and mental lapses started to pile up.
Zhang ended the contest with 46 unforced errors to Pliskova’s 38.
She was also undone by the tall, big-serving Czech’s nine aces to just one double fault, while Zhang hit just two aces and made five double faults.
The marathon run in New York of American Shelby Rogers has ended in the third round.
Rogers, two days after beating Australian Daria Gavrilova in the longest women’s singles match in US Open history, lost to No 4 seed Elina Svitolina 6-4 7-5.
On Friday, Rogers had outlasted Gavrilova 7-6 (8-6) 4-6 7-6 (7-5) in 3h 33m. — AP to defeat Leonardo Mayer of Argentina 6-7 (3) 6-3 6-1 6-4 and get to the fourth round.
The aspect that caused Nadal the most consternation was his difficulty converting break points, going six for 25.
“I overcame a tough situation [yesterday]. That’s very positive for me. I am very happy about this,” Nadal said. “I know I cannot play very well always, and not the whole match.”
Now Nadal meets 64th-ranked Alexandr Dolgopolov, a 28-year-old from Ukraine who is being asked questions about a different tournament entirely — one where he was involved in a match under scrutiny from anti-corruption investigators because of unusual betting.
Dolgopolov reached the fourth round for the first time since 2011 with a 6-1 6-0 6-4 win against Viktor Troicki, then said he had been interviewed by the Tennis Integrity Unit.
That group is looking into a match he played against Thiago Monteiro at a hard-court event in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, on August 20.
Dolgopolov said he approached the TIU.
“I was the first one to come there and try to give them all the information, so they can investigate it faster,” he said.
Also still in the top half of the men’s bracket are No 6 Dominic Thiem, No 9 David Goffin and No 24 Juan Martin del Potro, the 2009 Open champion.