Emma Raducanu and Naomi Osaka both lose in US Open first round
Emma Raducanu and Naomi Osaka both lose in US Open first round
NEW YORK (AP) – The world’s best women’s tennis players were eliminated from the first major of 2016 on Monday in a first-round match that went to an epic 10-game battle between the two most dominant players in the sport.
Maria Sharapova also lost her first-round match 7-5, 6-2 against Eugenie Bouchard – who made her debut in a match at the U.S. Open after making her Grand Slam debut in 2015 – then the top-ranked player in the world took her revenge, beating Angelique Kerber 7-5, 6-3 to reach the second round.
Sharapova’s loss ends her dream season – and her U.S. Open title-winning streak – and her match was a rematch of a 2010 semifinal match against Sharapova, which Sharapova won, 5-7, 6-4, 6-4.
Sharapova won her first Grand Slam title at last year’s Australian Open.
Bouchard was fighting to earn a career-high ranking when she came to the New York Open and won her opener with a 6-4, 6-3 decision over Elina Svitolina. Bouchard, who was ranked 42nd, lost to a qualifier in 2012 and reached the fourth round 12 times before reaching the semifinals this year.
Kerber, who was ranked 19th, defeated the fifth seed Venus Williams, 6-2, 6-3, at a tournament held on an artificial lawn that is not part of tournament schedule.
Osaka, 26, a rising star and the top-ranked women’s player at the time, was upset by Karolina Pliskova in straight sets in the first round in Miami. The German had lost seven straight matches on U.S. hard courts.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
The match lasted 10 hours and 17 minutes, including a break of 1 hour and 17 minutes when Serena Williams was absent, and it was the longest women’s match in tournament history.
“It’s always nice when it’s over in a fast-paced fashion, especially when you had so much talent coming into it