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Naomi Osaka beat Anastasia Zakharova 7-6, 7-6 on the second day of the US Open, having been broken while serving for the match. Aryna Sabalenka’s 6-2, 6-4 win over Camila Osorio was her 15th consecutive victory at the tournament, and Iga Swiatek beat Wang Xiyu 6-2, 6-3 without facing a break point. Maja Chwalinska and Sara Bejlek were the seeds to fall.
New York, United States: Naomi Osaka was broken serving for the match on Monday. Then she won the tiebreak, losing three points.
That was the closest anything came to an upset among the leading names. Two seeds went out, neither of them from the top fifteen, and everyone above them who played came through — most without much trouble at all.
Osaka’s Two Tiebreaks
The two-time champion led 3-0 and could not hold it. Zakharova broke back, kept the first set alive to the end, and forced a tiebreak that Osaka scrambled through.
The second was worse and finished better. Osaka served at 5-4 and was broken, and Zakharova had a route into a decider. The tiebreak that followed was not close: three points to the Russian and no more. Osaka plays Katerina Siniakova next.
Sabalenka’s Fifteen
Camila Osorio kept trying to push the world No. 1 back off the baseline and could not manage it for long enough. Sabalenka broke three times in a row to take the first set 6-2, then found herself level through eight games of the second before converting her first break point of the set at 4-4 and serving it out.
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It is 15 straight wins at Flushing Meadows for the two-time defending champion.
Swiatek Without a Break Point
Wang Xiyu’s plan was to take the ball early and refuse Swiatek any rhythm. It lasted about four games.
Swiatek won 80 per cent of her first-serve points, took three of her nine break chances and did not face a single break point in the match. Wang finished with 30 unforced errors, most of them from trying to force an opening that never appeared. The 6-2, 6-3 scoreline came without a spectacular passage of play in it. Nadia Podoroska is next.
Noskova from 5-2 Down
The Wimbledon champion had the most alarming start and the most emphatic finish. Katie Volynets led 5-2 in the opening set before Noskova won five games in a row to take it 7-5, then five more to open the second.
Ten consecutive games, 20 of the first 24 points in the second set, and a 7-5, 6-1 win that came with 28 winners, 33 unforced errors, nine aces and ten double faults — a volatile afternoon that nonetheless lifts her to a career-high sixth in the live rankings.
Zheng and the Sixteen-Year-Old
Qinwen Zheng, the former Olympic champion, was taken to three sets by 16-year-old Kristina Liutova, who took a first set that contained five breaks of serve and no obvious respect for reputations.
Zheng steadied in the second, saved the one break point she faced, and then ran away with the decider from a 4-0 lead. The 4-6, 6-3, 6-1 win is her fourth successive main-draw victory here and moves her to a projected 101st in the live rankings, one place outside the top 100.
Two Seeds Out
Taylor Townsend beat 20th seed Maja Chwalinska 6-2, 6-3, and Cristina Bucsa came through three sets against 28th seed Sara Bejlek.
Elsewhere Amanda Anisimova, last year’s runner-up, beat Ashlyn Krueger 6-1, 6-3 while saving ten of the eleven break points she faced. Karolina Muchova, Diana Shnaider, Sorana Cirstea, Anna Kalinskaya and Marie Bouzkova all won in straight sets, four of them conceding four games or fewer.
First-round results — US Open, women’s singles, day two
[1] A. Sabalenka d. C. Osorio 6-2, 6-4
[6] L. Noskova d. K. Volynets 7-5, 6-1
[7] K. Muchova d. S. Kraus 6-3, 6-0
[8] I. Swiatek d. X. Wang 6-2, 6-3
[10] A. Anisimova d. A. Krueger 6-1, 6-3
[13] N. Osaka d. A. Zakharova 7-6, 7-6
[15] D. Shnaider d. D. Snigur 6-0, 6-4
[16] S. Cirstea d. J. Grabher 6-3, 6-0
[21] A. Kalinskaya d. A. Blinkova 6-4, 6-3
[25] M. Bouzkova d. E. Jacquemot 6-2, 6-2
T. Townsend d. [20] M. Chwalinska 6-2, 6-3
C. Bucsa d. [28] S. Bejlek 7-5, 4-6, 6-1
Q. Zheng d. K. Liutova 4-6, 6-3, 6-1
