ELISE Mertens has had a stunning opening round win at the Western & Southern Open, while number one seed Karolina Pliskova had a shock round one exit and Ons Jabeur and Vera Zvonareva have defied terrible opening sets to advance through on day four of the WTA Tour competition. Meanwhile the ATP Tour tournament saw the first Round of 32 match take place, with a number of seeds exiting the tournament.

WTA Tour:

Mertens completely stunned top 50 talent, Rebecca Peterson with a 6-0 6-2 victory, wrapping up the match in under an hour of court time. Mertens served six aces and only dropped two points off her first serve, which itself was a healthy 66.7 per cent efficiency. She saved both break points against her, whilst securing five breaks off six opportunities to smash her Swedish opponent in a one-sided contest. Peterson only won 23 of a possible 76 points for the match – 30.3 per cent – in what was an ominous sign for the Belgian heading into the second round.

The only match that took less time was 12th seed Estonian Anett Kontaveit‘s 6-3 6-1 triumph over Russian Daria Kasatkina, defeating the world number 68 in 56 minutes. Kontaveit served seven aces and won 71.9 and 66.7 percent of her points of her first and second serves, to break five times to once and win 65.2 per cent of the total match points. In other straight forward clashes, Netherlands’ Arantxa Rus knocked off Alison Van Uytvanck 6-2 6-3 in an upset, as Christina McHale stunned Iga Swiatek 6-2 6-4, Yulia Putintseva continued her good form with a 6-4 6-3 victory over Shuai Zhang and Kirsten Flipkens skipped passed Katerina Siniakova in the battle of the qualifiers.

In more startling results, both Jabeur and Zvonareva came back from huge first set deficits to post three-set wins in just under two hours each. The Tunisian talent who is known for her hard court prowess was better for longer against a plucky Leylah Fernandez, defeating the young gun 0-6 6-4 6-3 in an hour and 55 minutes. It was a similar story for veteran Zvonareva who had to fight off a more experienced opponent than Fernandez in Magda Linette, winning 1-6 6-3 6-1 in an hour and 45 minutes. German Laura Siegemund also defied her qualifying status to win in the longest match of the day, defeating 10th seed Marketa Vondrousova to move through to the second round at New York.

In other results, American return queen CiCi Bellis continued her remarkable story with a 6-2 3-6 7-6 victory over fellow qualifier, Oceane Dodin. Meanwhile Czech Marie Bouzkova defeated Anna Kalinskaya 6-1 7-5 and Jessica Pegula upset Top Seed Open winner, Jennifer Brady in a tight 7-6 6-4 victory. In the late results, Caroline Garcia defied a late challenge from Sloane Stephens to win in straight sets, 6-3 7-6, while Jil Teichmann defeated Danielle Collins 6-3 6-3.

In the final matches of the day, Veronika Kudermetova won the first set over Pliskova before the first seed hit back in the second, winning the first four games before Kudermetova came from behind for the 7-5 6-4 victory. Alize Cornet dominated the first set against American second seed Sofia Kenin to hold herself in good stead for the second set, serving for the match at 6-1 5-2 before Kenin hit back to go to a tiebreaker at the end of the second set (6-1 5-6). While Cornet ran out victor eventually in one hour and 43 minutes, it was a huge second set from Kenin that kept the match tight.

ATP Tour:

Andrey Rublev was the biggest casualty of day four at New York, losing to Brit, Daniel Evans in three sets thanks to the latter’s ability to grind and run out stronger in the third deciding set. The up and coming Russian joined another player who had appeared to be on the rise – Chile’s Cristian Garin – on the sidelines after a disappointing fadeaway in the final set resulted in qualifier Aljaz Bedene skipping to a 6-4 6-7 6-0 triumph.

Of the other seeds in action, top ranked player on court in Diego Schwartzman took care of Casper Ruud in straight sets, but not without a struggle, winning 7-6 6-3 to advance through to the second round. Also through to the next round was 14th seed Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov who enjoyed a 6-3 6-4 victory over rising Frenchman, Ugo Humbert. The other Russian seed in Karen Khachanov took home the win against Kazakhstan’s Alexander Bublik in a 6-4 6-4 victory, while John Isner had a good day on the main court with a 7-5 6-4 win over Hubert Hurkacz.

In other completed matches at the time of publishing, Marcos Giron got up in the battle of the all-American qualifiers with the narrowest of straight sets wins over compatriot Mackenzie McDonald. Giron won 7-6 7-5 to book a spot in the second round, joining Frenchman Richard Gasquet who knocked off another United States qualifier in J.J. Wolf, 6-4 6-4. The other all-qualifiers battle resulted in Hungary’s Marton Fucsovics triumphing over Slovenia’s Norbert Gombos 6-3 6-4, whilst in the match prior, Australian Open quarter finalist and United States’ wildcard, Tennys Sandgren defeated Italian Lorenzo Sonego.

In a number of late matches, fourth seed Stefanos Tsitsipas easily rolled past the returning Kevin Anderson 6-1 6-3, while Australian John Millman survived an almost three-hour thriller against Frenchman Adrian Mannarino to win 4-6 6-4 7-6. In another all-qualifying battle, American Sebastian Korda and Finn Emil Ruusuvuori locked horns on court 14 with the latter getting up a three set battle, 6-7 6-4 5-7.

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Picture: Tennis World USA