The Latest: Venus Williams improves to 19-0 in Open’s 1st Rd
With AP Photos.
AP Photo USO305, USO209, USO210, USO222, USO241, USO172, USO153, USO143, USO142
NEW YORK (AP) – The Latest on the U.S. Open, the last Grand Slam tournament of the year (all times local):
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6:15 p.m.
Venus Williams shook off a mid-match lapse to improve to 19-0 in the U.S. Open’s first round and stay in the hunt for the No. 1 ranking.
The No. 9-seeded Williams, at 37 the oldest woman in the field, picked up a 6-3, 3-6, 6-2 victory over Viktoria Kuzmova, a 19-year-old qualifier from Slovakia who is ranked 135th.
Williams entered the U.S. Open as one of eight women with a chance to rise atop the WTA rankings by tournament’s end.
It was the first tour-level main draw match of Kuzmova’s career, the 967th for Williams, who won the title at Flushing Meadows in 2000 and 2001.
Williams was up a set, plus a break in the second at 2-0, when she faltered. Kuzmova broke for 2-1, then pulled at even at 3-all before taking three games in a row to force a third set. But Williams righted herself there, breaking for a 2-0 lead, then digging out of a love-40 hole for 3-0.
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6 p.m.
Denis Shapovalov’s outstanding summer kept rolling with a 7-5, 6-1, 6-2 victory over Russia’s Daniil Medvedev in the first round of the U.S. Open.
The 18-year-old Canadian, who became the youngest player to reach the semifinals of an ATP Masters 1000 event at the Rogers Cup in Montreal earlier this month, had to qualify to get into the U.S. Open main draw. He dominated Medvedev on serve, winning 72 percent of first-serve points and booming six aces.
Next up for the 69th-ranked Shapovalov will be eighth-seeded Frenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, a 6-3, 6-3, 6-4 winner over Marius Copil of Romania.
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5:35 p.m.
American Sloane Stephens has advanced to the second round of the U.S. Open with a 7-5, 6-1 victory over 2015 runner-up Roberta Vinci.
Stephens, ranked No. 83, has had a strong summer going into Flushing Meadows, reaching the semifinals of the hardcourt events in Toronto and Cincinnati. She faces the winner of the match between 11th-seeded Dominika Cibulkova and fellow Slovakian Jana Cepelova.
Just before the tournament, Vinci was given a replacement trophy for her 2015 loss to Flavia Pennetta in an all-Italian final after the original trophy was stolen from her home in Italy.
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4:25 p.m.
Seventh-seeded Johanna Konta lost in the first round of the U.S. Open, stunned by 78th-ranked Serbian Aleksandra Krunic 4-6, 6-3, 6-4.
Konta was a semifinalist at Wimbledon last month and was one of eight women who had a shot at the No. 1 ranking going into Flushing Meadows.
Konta had been considered Britain’s greatest hope to win a U.S. Open title after Andy Murray pulled out with a hip injury just days before the event.
Krunic, who was serving for the match, screamed “Yes!” when Konta sailed a backhand wide on match point. Krunic’s greatest success in a Grand Slam event came at the U.S. Open in 2014, when she reached the fourth round.
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4:05 p.m.
John Isner, the highest-ranked American man, delivered 22 aces and was broken only once in a 6-1, 6-3, 4-6, 6-3 victory over Pierre-Hugues Herbert of France in the U.S. Open’s first round.
The 10th-seeded Isner converted 5 of 9 break points while saving 6 of the 7 he faced.
He is one of 11 men from the host country on Monday’s schedule.
Another, Steve Johnson, advanced with a 6-4, 7-6 (2), 7-6 (5) win against Nicolas Almagro of Spain.
Isner next faces Hyeon Chung of South Korea. Johnson plays Kyle Edmund of Britain in the second round.
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3:55 p.m.
Marin Cilic, the 2014 U.S. Open champion, made it through his opening-round match against aptly named American Tennys Sandgren with a 6-4, 6-3, 3-6, 6-3 victory.
The fifth-seeded Cilic was playing his first match since losing to Roger Federer in the Wimbledon final last month. No man ever has won the U.S. Open after not entering any tournaments between the All England Club and Flushing Meadows.
Cilic didn’t even practice for two weeks because of a left leg injury. But he produced 55 winners Monday, 33 more than Sandgren.
The 105th-ranked Sandgren, whose name comes from his Swedish great-grandfather and has nothing to do with tennis, pumped his fist after he held serve to win the third set.
Cilic next faces Florian Mayer, who won 7-5, 0-6, 6-3, 6-4 over Rogerio Dutra Silva.
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3:45 p.m.
David Ferrer, the 2013 French Open runner-up, is out of the U.S. Open in the first round.
The 21st-seeded Ferrer fell to 103rd-ranked qualifier Mikhail Kukushkin of Kazakhstan 4-6, 6-3, 6-2, 6-1.
Ferrer made a surprise run to the semifinals of the hard-court Cincinnati Masters earlier this month.
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1:30 p.m.
Two-time Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova downed former No. 1 Jelena Jankovic 7-5, 7-5, to advance to the second round of the U.S. Open.
Kvitova, the No. 13 seed, blasted 28 winners, twice as many as her opponent, and converted nearly three-quarters of her first-serve points en route to the victory.
Other completed matches on Monday’s opening day of the tournament included American wild card Sofia Kenin defeating 32nd-seeded American Lauren Davis 7-5, 7-5; Alize Cornet of France defeating Brit Heather Watson 6-4, 6-4; Kristyna Pliskova of the Czech Republic beating Misa Eguchi of Japan 6-2, 6-2; and American Sachia Vickery defeating Natalia Vikhlyantseva of Russia 4-6, 6-4, 6-1.
On the men’s side, 12th-seeded Pablo Carreno Busta defeated American Evan King 6-3, 6-2, 7-6 (5); Kyle Edmund of Great Britain defeated No. 32 Robin Haase of the Netherlands 6-3, 7-5, 6-3; and British qualifier Cameron Norrie defeated Russian Dmitry Tursunov, who retired after dropping the first two sets 7-6 (7), 6-1.
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12:30 p.m.
Wimbledon champion Garbine Muguruza advanced easily to the second round of the U.S. Open, needing just an hour to beat American Varvara Lepchenko 6-0, 6-3.
The third-seeded Spaniard looked efficient in the tournament’s first match on the Arthur Ashe Stadium court, firing 16 winners, twice as many as her opponent.
Other matches involving seeded players to finish quickly on Monday’s opening day included No. 18 Caroline Garcia of France defeating Tereza Martincova of the Czech Republic 6-0, 6-1, and 31st-seeded Magdalena Rybarikova of Slovakia defeating Italian Camila Giorgi 6-3, 6-4.
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11:35 a.m.
Play has begun on the first day of the U.S. Open, with Wimbledon champion Garbine Muguruza on the Arthur Ashe Stadium court against American Varvara Lepchenko.
Other matches just getting underway on the main show courts include two-time Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova against former No. 1 Jelena Jankovic, Spaniard Nicolas Almagro against American Steve Johnson, and No. 32-seeded Lauren Davis against fellow American Sofia Kenin.
There appears to be no need for the year-old roof on Ashe. Play began Monday with mostly sunny skies and a temperature of 70 degrees (21 Celsius).
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10:30 a.m.
The 2017 U.S. Open is set to begin with near-perfect weather and a much-anticipated match.
That comes Monday night when No. 2-seeded Simona Halep takes on former No. 1 and five-time major champion Maria Sharapova, who was given a wild-card entry to the U.S. Open after returning from a 15-month doping ban. Halep is winless against Sharapova in six previous meetings.
Play begins in the day session in Arthur Ashe Stadium with Wimbledon champ Garbine Muguruza against American Varvara Lepchenko. The 2014 U.S. Open champion Marin Cilic is next up against aptly named Tennys Sandrgen of the U.S. And seven-time major champion Venus Williams plays Viktoria Kuzmova of Slovakia.
Other big names on Monday’s schedule include No. 4 Alexander Zverev, two-time Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova and top American John Isner.
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More AP tennis coverage: https://apnews.com/tag/apf-Tennis
With AP Photos.
AP-WF-08-28-17 2219GMT