Verdasco ousts Murray in second round
Serena vs. Venus showdown Friday
NEW YORK (TNS) – Andy Murray’s return to the U.S. Open lasted just two rounds.
The 2012 champion was eliminated by No. 31 seed Fernando Verdasco 7-5, 2-6, 6-4, 6-4. The Spaniard will face a second straight past champion at Flushing Meadows when he meets third-seeded Juan Martin del Potro, the 2009 champion, in the third round.
Murray missed last year’s tournament because of a hip injury and didn’t consider himself a contender this year because of his lack of preparation.
Verdasco won for just the second time in 15 career meetings with Murray, who had multiple chances to even the final game of a 64-minute final set before the left-hander finished it.
Del Potro, the 2009 winner, beat American Denis Kudla 6-3, 6-1, 7-6 (4).
Meanwhile, Stan Wawrinka ran his U.S. Open winning streak to nine, beating French qualifier Ugo Humbert to reach the third round.
Wawrinka, the 2016 champion who missed the Grand Slam tournament last year because of two left knee surgeries, won 7-6 (5), 4-6, 6-3, 7-5. The unseeded
Tribune News Service Andy Murray argues with the chair umpire during his 7-5, 2-6, 6-4, 6-4 loss to Fernando Verdasco in the second round of the U.S. Open on Wednesday in New York.
Swiss next faces No. 25 seed Milos Raonic of Canada in the third round.
Raonic swept past Gilles Simon of France 6-3, 6-4, 6-4.
John Isner reached the third round for the seventh consecutive year, hitting 38 aces to come back and edge 42nd-ranked Nicolas Jarry of Chile 6-7 (7), 6-4, 3-6, 7-6 (2), 6-4.
Later in the evening, No. 18 seed Jack Sock’s rough year continued with a 4-6, 6-3, 6-2, 7-6 (3) second-round loss to Nikoloz Basilashvili, while No. 15 seed Stefanos Tsitsipas was eliminated by Daniil Medvedev of Russia 6-4, 6-3, 4-6, 6-3.
No. 5 seed Kevin Anderson, last year’s runner-up, was an easy winner, and
ninth-seeded Dominic Thiem pulled out a fiveset victory over American Steve Johnson.
On the women’s side, the latest Grand Slam installment of Williams vs. Williams is set. One big difference this time: The superstar siblings will be meeting in the third round, their earliest showdown at a major tournament in 20 years.
Serena Williams set up the highly anticipated matchup by hitting 13 aces and overwhelming 101stranked Carina Witthoeft of Germany 6-2, 6-2 in a little more than an hour on Wednesday night. Hours earlier, Venus Williams did her part with another straight-set victory, eliminating 40th-ranked Camila Giorgi of Italy 6-4, 7-5.
They will play Friday, and it is going to be their 30th tour-level encounter – plus, of course, all those times when they traded shots from across the net as kids in California, then on practice courts all around the world.
Friday’s match will be the soonest the sisters have played each other at any Grand Slam since their very first tour match, all the way back at the 1998 Australian Open. Venus won that one. But since then, it has been the younger Serena who has grown dominant.
Defending champion Sloane Stephens rallied to reach the third round with a 4-6, 7-5, 6-2 victory over Anhelina Kalinina.
Stephens set up a thirdround matchup with Victoria Azarenka, the former No. 1 player who has twice been a U.S. Open finalist.
Azarenka reached the third round in her return to the U.S. Open by beating No. 25 seed Daria Gavrilova of Australia 6-1, 6-2.
Seeded women who advanced on another day with the temperature topping 95 degrees included No. 7 Elina Svitolina, No. 8 Karolina Pliskova, No. 15 Elise Mertens, No. 19 Anastasija Sevastova and No. 23 Barbora Strycova, all in straight sets.