U.S. men’s best hope gets Sock’ed
One of America’s best hopes crashed out on the very first night of the U.S. Open, when Jordan Thompson staved off Jack Sock’s spirited rally and pulled out a 6-2, 7-6 (14-12), 1-6, 5-7, 6-4 thriller.
The 13th-seeded Sock had saved match points and battled back from two sets down to pull even. Then he was up a break in the fifth and final set, before seeing the Australian storm back to win a 3:56 marathon match.
“Utter disappointment when you’re up two breaks in one set, a break in the fifth. Choke it all the way, so. Really sucks,’’ said Sock. “Maybe [it] could’ve not been so topsy-turvy if I hold once in the second [set], I’m through in four the way it was going. He’s a tough player, makes a lot of balls. Clearly was cramping pretty hard there in the end, running down everything.” No. 10 John Isner is the highest-seeded American left. Thompson moves on to a secondround meeting with unseeded Thomas Fabbiano of Italy.
Bernard Tomic left Wimbledon nearly two months ago in disgrace, slapped with a $20,000 fine — the second-largest in the stiff-upper-lip tournament’s history — and dropped by his racket sponsor after admitting he faked an injury and was “bored” while basically tanking his first-round match.
Tomic, a talented 24-yearold Aussie once hailed as a rising superstar and ranked as high as No. 17, punctuated the bracingly honest post-match interview by declaring he “couldn’t care less” about his results at the U.S. Open.
Which is good, because Tomic fell in four sets Monday — 3-6, 6-3, 6-4, 6-4 to No. 19 seed Gilles Muller — in his Open premiere, his first match since Wimbledon.
“I haven’t been giving a lot of focus and commitment to tennis in the start of the year ... so I guess it’s my fault and I need to turn it around,” Tomic said. “This sport will give back to you what you put into it, and that’s something I’ve learned.”
One-time American It Girl Sloane Stephens continued her comeback summer with a 7-5, 6-1 victory over Italy’s Roberta Vinci, best known as the spoiler of the Serena Slam in an alltime upset in the 2015 Open semifinals.
Stephens, 24, was sidelined for nearly a year due to an injured left foot — she dabbled in broadcasting during the layoff — before returning at Wimbledon. She took her ranking back inside the top 100 with runs to the semifinals of the prestigious hard court events in Cincinnati and Toronto, and her court coverage looked solid on Monday. Next is No. 11 seed Dominika Cibulkova or Jana Cepelova.
No. 17 seed Sam Querrey, fresh off a career-best major run to the Wimbledon semis, eased past savvy Frenchman Gilles Simon, 6-4, 6-3, 6-4, in a tidy 1 hour, 53 minutes.
Isner, the highestseeded American at No. 10, on his chances in a field missing five of the top 11 players in world: “I know there’s some unfortunate situations with some of the top players in our game. For me, nothing changes. Whether the other guys were here, there’s a lot of very good players in this tournament that are going to have to be dealt with. I think I’m one of them.’’