US Open – August 31, 2015 marked the 10th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina which dissipated off the American Gulf Coast back in 2005. In this time a lot of Americans and folks around the world are remembering the devastation and destruction of that natural disaster. Yet it seems eerily striking that looking at the 2015 US Open women’s draw today, that one can say that a near similar type of disaster has occurred as so many top seeds are gone from the draw. Of the 32 seeded players in the women’s draw, 10 have not made it out of the first round and all matches have not been completed.
Perhaps it was a sign of things to come when Maria Sharapova (3) pulled out just before the start of the event. She cited a plaguing leg injury as the reason why she could not compete at this year’s event. When actual play began, things only got worse. Ana Ivanovic (7) was dismissed by Dominika Cibulkova in 3 sets 3-6 6-3 3-6. Next came Karolina Pliskova (8) who was just crowned the winner of the 2015 US Open Series winner on the women’s side. She was vying for a chance at $1 million dollar bonus money had she been able to lift the winner’s trophy. However, she was summarily dismissed by American Anna Tatishvili 2-6 1-6 and with it that lucrative opportunity gone.
It might have been no real surprise when Svetlana Kuznetsova (30) was knocked out of the tournament by Kristina Mladenovic 3-6 5-7 as the Kuznetsova has not played a competitive match since the French Open in the spring. However, it was bit of a shock when both Carla Suarez-Navarro (10) and Jelena Jankovic (21) went out of the tournament. Considering all things, Suarez-Navarro losing to Denisa Allertova 1-6 (5)6-7 may not be such a huge upset. The Spaniard came into these championships on a 6-match losing streak, having not won a match at any of the three summer hardcourt tournaments she played. In fact, the last time she won a match was mid-June when she beat Kuznetsova at Birmingham. Therefore this result was not in and of itself surprising. However, Jankovic came into these championships looking good as she made it to the semifinals of Cincinnati before losing to Simona Halep. She went out to French wild card Oceane Dodin 6-2 5-7 3-6. Jankovic was not the only player who came into this tournament with some steam behind their name. Sloane Stephens (29) who just collected her first WTA title at CitiOpen in Washington DC, was looking to make a name for herself. However, she lost in straight sets to fellow American Coco Vandeweghe, 4-6 3-6.
One might have expected that things would have calm down on Day 2 but within 2 hours of he start of play, two more women’s seeds were ousted. Lucie Safarova (6) who recently made it to her first major final at the French Open was knocked out by Lesia Tsurenko. Safavora lost 4-6 1-6 in 65 minutes. She would later state that she was suffering from an abdominal tear which occurred in the New Haven final last Saturday. This affected her ability to serve on the day. Semifinalist Timea Bacsinszky (14) also lost to Barbora Styrcova 5-7 0-6 extending her match losing streak to 4. Olga Govortsova just upset Irina-Carmila Begu (28) 6-1 0-6 7-6.
Interestingly enough, on the men’s side, despite the huge upset of Kei Nishikori (4) going out to Benoit Paire early on the opening day, there has been no major blows to the men’s top seed. Gael Monfils (16) had to retire from his match due to injury.
The men’s draw just lost another big seed as American Donald Young just knocked out the 11th seed Gilles Simon (11) 2-6 4-6 6-4 6-4 6-4.
