No. 2 seed in the Washington draw Kristina Mladenovic struggled through her opening match against Tatjana Maria of Germany. It was apparent that the talented Frenchwoman was bothered by injury, and actually took a medical timeout in the third set. Despite being a break down to Maria in the deciding set, Mladenovic fought her opponent and her body successfully. The World No. 13 won 7-5 3-6 6-3 and got her 40th win of the year. 17 year-old Bianca Andreescu will be Mladenovic’s Round of 16 opponent, looking to pull off two upsets in a row.
The Former World No. 5 Eugenie Bouchard has continued to look for her game in 2017. Other than her stand-out results (quarterfinals in Madrid, semifinals in Sydney, Round of 32 at Australian Open), the Canadian has struggled to win matches. Bouchard won her first match since the French Open in the opening round of Washington. The World No. 73 was faced with the 8th seed Christina McHale. In a dramatic first set, Bouchard came out victorious after closing the set out on her 8th set point. The match was won in the first set tiebreak, as McHale didn’t put up a fight in the second set. Bouchard won 7-6(6) 6-0 and will next face Andrea Petkovic. Both players have spent time inside the Top 10, and are now struggling to keep themselves in the Top 100. Petkovic carries a significant advantage, leading the head-to-head 4-1, which may turn out to be the deciding factor.
There were also three 2nd Round matches played later in the day. 7th seed Ekaterina Makarova was the only one to come through in straight sets. It was also the most surprising, as she faced the trickiest of the unseeded opponents in Monica Puig. The Russian came through and won 6-2 6-4.
No. 5 seed Oceane Dodin won 3-6 7-5 6-1 over Sara Errani. It was a match full of twists and turns, played by two very different contestants. Dodin is a young aggressive 20 year-old, somewhat reckless in her game. Errani, at 30 years old is outside the Top 100, but enjoyed her tenure inside the Top 10. Due to her size (Errani is 19 cm shorter than Dodin), the Italian plays a grinding, calculating game; always waiting for her opponent’s mistakes. Errani looked the better player in the opening set and for the majority of Set 2. The veteran worked her way to 3 match points when she was serving for the match at 6-3 5-4. From there, Dodin became unstoppable. The young Frenchwoman won 9 out of the next 10 games, and the match. Dodin’s next opponent will be Aryna Sabalenka or Sabine Lisicki.
An even more dramatic match was played out by 4th seed Julia Goerges and Alison Van Uytvanck. The Belgian was outplaying the seeded German, and had a lead of 6-3 3-1. Goerges did not let that stand, and launched a comeback, winning 5 games in a row. Van Uytvanck and Goerges were very stable on serve in the final set. Though Van Uytvanck had match point at 5-4, the set went into a tiebreak. The World No. 104 was leading 6-3, but lost 3 more match points. Goerges ended up winning the final set tiebreak 11-9, squandering two match points, but saving five.
