Two hours, most of them after midnight
The first ball went up at 0:13 local time. The last one came down at 2:01. Sofia Kenin beat Venus Williams 6-2, 7-6 (6) in a first-round match played to a stadium that had largely gone home, one former Grand Slam champion against a woman with seven of them.
Kenin is 27 and won the Australian Open in 2020. She is here on a wild card. Four of nine break points converted, against two of seven the other way. Winners 28 to 13. Unforced errors 21 to 24. Double faults four to six.
Williams is 46. She won this tournament in 2000 and 2001, when her opponent was two years old. She dragged the second set to a tie-break and could not finish it.
Try it for $0.99.
Pegula waits, and she was nervous too
Another American next. Jessica Pegula, seeded third and a finalist here last year, took out Romania’s Elena-Gabriela Ruse 6-3, 6-2 without losing serve.
The scoreline hides how scratchy it started. She burned eight break points in the third game before finally getting through two games later. “A lot of nerves today,” said the 32-year-old, at her 10th US Open. “Everybody is panicking in the first three days, so I’m glad that’s over.”
Seven match points, and Krejcikova only needed to lose one
The 27th seed is the first seed gone in the women’s draw. Barbora Krejcikova, twice a major champion, lost 7-6 (4), 6-2 to Kamilla Rakhimova of Uzbekistan. She saved six match points. The seventh got her, and she dropped the last five games of the match.
Rakhimova had done her homework, watching Krejcikova save eight match points against Taylor Townsend in a previous round. “I was trying not to think about it,” she said. This is only her second time in the second round in New York.
Jasmine Paolini, seeded 19th, got through her first match in over seven weeks after the foot injury she picked up following Wimbledon.
Discover the rest of the TENNIS news on our mathodds website and app!
in your pocket.
Real-time notifications & alerts
Leave a Reply