Kim Clijsters and Venus Williams bow out of US Open

Andy Murray through after saving match point

Sixth-seeded Petra Kvitova needed only two sets to reach the the third round of the U.S. Open, the Grand Slam event that his been her most elusive.

Kvitova beat Kateryna Kozlova 7-6 (3), 6-2 in an hour and 40 minutes Wednesday, overcoming her nervousness in the first set.

This is her 14th U.S. Open. It's the only Grand Slam tournament where she has failed to reach the semifinals. She reached the quarterfinals twice, in 2015 and 2017. She has two Wimbledon titles.

Angelique Kerber is on her way to the third round of the U.S. Open, which she won in 2016.

The No. 17 seed opened play yesterday and beat Anna-Lena Friedsam 6-3, 7-6 (6) in an hour and 40 minutes. Kerber emerged on the WTA Tour by reaching the semifinals at Flushing Meadows in 2011. Last year, she got knocked out in the first round.

Kim Clijsters has lost playing her first Grand Slam match in eight years.

The four-time major champion was beaten by Ekaterina Alexandrova 3-6, 7-5, 6-1 Tuesday night in the first round at the U.S. Open.

Clijsters won the tournament in 2005, 2009 and 2010, and retired after the 2012 Open. Now 37 and the mother of three, she embarked on a comeback this year but has lost all three of her matches and struggled with injuries.

Daniil Medvedev, who reached his first Grand Slam final at last year's U.S. Open, has won his firstround match at the tournament, beating Federico Delbonis 6-1, 62, 6-4.

Former champion Sloane Stephens has won her opening match at the U.S. Open, beating Mihaela Buzarnescu of Romania 6-3, 6-3.

Stephens won the title in 2017 when she was ranked No. 83. She's seeded 26th.

Stephens played on Court 17, and said a match with few spectators required an adjustment.

"It's back to girls' 12, where it's you and your parents, and the girl you're playing and their parents," she said.

Venus Williams has lost in the opening round at the U.S. Open for the first time in her long career.

Williams had been 21-0 previously, but she was beaten by No. 20-seeded Karolina Muchova 6-3, 7-5 on Tuesday night.

It was small consolation to Williams that by appearing in the tournament for the 22nd time, she broke the women's record in the Open era. She had been tied with Martina Navratilova.

Williams' sister, Serena, was among the few spectators for the match. Serena won her opening match earlier in the day.

The 40-year-old Venus was the oldest player in the draw. She fell to 1-7 this year.

Serena Williams began her latest attempt to win a 24th Grand Slam singles trophy by beating Kristie Ahn in the first round at the U.S. Open.

The two Americans split the first 10 games before Williams pulled away to win 7-5, 6-3. The victory was her 102nd at the tournament, breaking the tie she held with Chris Evert for the most by a woman in the Open era.

Williams hit 13 aces and lost only six points on her first serve.

Williams, who turns 39 this month, has won the tournament six times and has been runner-up each of the past two years. She's seeded No. 3 and hoping to tie Margaret Court's record of 24 Grand Slam singles titles.

Wild card J.J. Wolf pulled off an upset at the U.S. Open, beating 29th-seeded Guido Pella 6-2, 0-6, 6-3, 6-3 in the first round.

The 21-year-old Wolf is in the main draw for the first time. Pella reached the third round of the U.S. Open in 2018 and the third round of the Australian Open earlier this year.

Andy Murray saved a match point and put together his 10th career comeback from two sets down to win his first Grand Slam contest in nearly 20 months.

The 2012 U.S. Open champion, still working his way back from a pair of operations on his right hip, overcame 13 double-faults and a big deficit to beat Yoshihito Nishioka 4-6, 4-6, 7-6 (5), 7-6 (4), 6-4 in 4 hours, 39 minutes.

Murray is a former No. 1-ranked player whose resume also includes two Wimbledon championships and two Olympic singles gold medals.

The 33-year-old had hip surgery in January 2018, then again in January 2019, shortly after a firstround loss at the Australian Open. He figured he would need to retire from tennis.

But Murray eventually returned to the tour last season. A pelvic problem — combined with the sport's coronavirus-caused hiatus — kept him off the tour from last November until August.

Murray faced a match point Tuesday while down 6-5 in the fourth set, but he saved it with a 127 mph service winner.

Two seeded men at the U.S. Open — No. 2 Dominic Thiem and No. 32 Adrian Mannarino — have been fined because someone in their entourage violated the tournament's COVID-19 protocols.

Mannarino was docked $2,500 for unsportsmanlike conduct, and Thiem was fined $1,500.

Former top-10 player Carla Suarez Navarro has announced that she will need six months of chemotherapy to treat Hodgkin lymphoma.

Suarez Navarro pulled out of the U.S. Open last month.

In a video posted on Twitter on Tuesday, the Spaniard she was diagnosed recently.

"I'm fine and calm at the moment and willing to face whatever comes," Suarez Navarro said.

She turns 32 on Thursday.