Reuters
New York, Sept 1: Garbine Muguruza was once again left to sift through the remains of another failed US Open campaign after the third-seeded Spaniard suffered a shock 5-7, 4-6 second round upset by unheralded Latvian Anastasija Sevastova here Wednesday.
But then there were no such problems for second seed Angelique Kerber who stayed on track in her quest to unseat Serena Williams as World No.1 by beating Mirjana Lucic-Baroni of Croatia 6-2, 7-6 (9-7). In another major upset on the day, former World No. 1 Caroline Wozniacki stunned ninth seed Svetlana Kuznetsova 6-4, 6-4. The Dane was just one point short of falling 0-5 behind in the first set, but rallied splendidly to reel off nine games in a row.
French Open champion Muguruza has never found the same success on the Flushing Meadows hard courts as she has on Parisian clay. In four visits to the US Open, the 22-year-old has yet to advance to the third round and the Spaniard was unable to overcome her 48th-ranked opponent this time in a sloppy contest littered with service breaks.
“I was shaking a little bit at the end,” the 26-year-old Sevastova admitted in an on-court interview. “A night match on Ashe. What is going to be bigger? It feels great, but it’s still not like I won the tournament. It’s only second round.”
Meanwhile Australian Open winner Kerber rifled home an ace to finish the first set against the free swinging, 34-year-old Lucic-Baroni, then won a see-saw second set in which each player was broken three times on the way to a tie-breaker.
