Serena outclasses Sharapova
Playing her first match at the US Open since last year’s loss in a chaotic, controversial final, Serena Williams played nearly perfect tennis and beat Maria Sharapova 6-1, 6-1 in a contest devoid of drama yesterday.
Williams stretched her winning streak to 19 matches against Sharapova and now leads their headto-head series 20-2.
‘‘Every time I come up against her,’’ Williams said, ‘‘I just bring out some of my best tennis.’’
Sure did this time; the whole thing lasted all of 59 minutes. Williams won twice as many points, 56-28. She saved all five break points she faced and lashed serves at up to 185kph. She broke five times.
Few players would have stood a chance against Williams the way she performed – and certainly not a diminished Sharapova, who is ranked just 87th after missing much of this season with a bad right shoulder.
‘‘She would win the title, playing like this,’’ 18-time major champion Chris Evert said about Williams on ESPN’S telecast.
Meanwhile, former US Open champion Angelique Kerber crashed out, losing 7-5 0-6 6-4 to Kristina Mladenovic.
The 14th-seed Kerber lost in two hours and 24 minutes as she fought back in vain from 2-0 down in the last set, drawing back to 3-3. But her 54thranked French opponent wrapped up matters with two winners.
Top-seeded Novak Djokovic felt good enough after his workmanlike first-round victory at the US Open to do a little dancing.
Djokovic, who is now 34-1 in his last 35 grand slam matches, dispatched Spaniard Roberto Carballes Baena 6-4, 6-1, 6-4.
He then gave an on-court interview in which he acknowledged dancing in Central Park as part of his pre-match preparation. roger Federer dropped his first set of the tournament against a qualifier ranked 190th before coming back to eliminate Sumit Nagal, of India, 4-6, 6-1, 6-2, 6-4.
Meanwhile, French Open champion Ash Barty was forced to come back to defeat Zarina Diyas 1-6, 6-3, 6-2. The second-seeded Barty, who amassed 36 unforced errors and got less than half of her first serves in, was thoroughly dominated in the first set and did not begin to come alive until the match was knotted at 3-3 in the second set.
She went on to win nine of the next 11 games, the last ending when the No 80-ranked Diyas sailed a forehand long.
Among other notable results, third-seeded Karolina Pliskova overcame 32 unforced errors to survive her first-round match over Czech qualifier Tereza Martincova 7-6 (6), 7-6 (3). Eugenie Bouchard, a former Wimbledon finalist and top-10 player, lost her 11th straight tour match to 12th-seeded Anastasija Sevastova 6-3, 6-3. And former Olympic gold medalist Monica Puig fell to Rebecca Peterson of Sweden 6-3, 6-3.