Coco, top seed Stephens crash out
WASHINGTON: Coco Gauff, the American teen who electrified Wimbledon with a last-16 run, and US top seed Sloane Stephens crashed out in the first round of the WTA Washington Open on Tuesday.
Eighth-ranked Stephens, the 2017 US Open champion, lost to Sweden’s Rebecca Peterson 6-2, 7-5 while 15-year-old qualifier Gauff fell to Kazakhstan’s 84thranked Zarina Diyas 6-4, 6-2.
“Every loss is something I learn from,” Gauff said. “Overall it was a good experience.”
The US Open women’s hardcourt tuneup event lost its only top-10 entrant in Stephens and its star attraction in 146thranked Gauff, whose loss came in her first main-draw match since she fell to eventual champion Simona Halep at Wimbledon.
“I’m looking forward to the US Open and hope I can make a good result there,” Gauff said. “I’m going to work on being more aggressive and trusting myself a little more on the court.”
“I’m happy for all the support,” said Gauff. “I thought it would settle back after a couple weeks but I guess people are still excited.” MATTEK-SANDS WINS
LOS ANGELES: Bethanie Matteksands, playing her first WTA singles match since the Australian Open, rallied to beat Venus Williams 6-7 (4/7), 6-3, 6-1 on Tuesday in San Jose, California.
Mattek-sands, 34, notched her first singles match win in more than a year—since a first-round victory at the 2018 French Open.
She dropped her serve to open the third set, but won the final six games to set up a second-round clash with Spain’s eighth-seeded Carla Suarez Navarro. AZARENKA THROUGH CALIFORNIA: Former world no 1 Victoria Azarenka overpowered tournament qualifier Harmony Tan 6-2, 6-4 to reach the second round of the Silicon Valley Classic in Northern California on Tuesday. American Danielle Collins came out ahead in a marathon 6-4, 5-7, 6-2 battle with China’s Zhang Shuai on a sunsoaked afternoon on the campus of San Jose State University.
Collins will next face Zheng Saisai after the Chinese defeated Britton Heather Watson 6-3, 6-1. TSONGA ADVANCES WASHINGTON: France’s Jo-wilfried Tsonga defeated his first top-10 rival in nearly two years, ousting Russian second seed Karen Khachanov 6-4, 2-6, 7-5 on Tuesday at the ATP Washington Open.
The 34-year-old Frenchman, ranked 70th in the world, outlasted eighth-ranked Khachanov after one hour and 58 minutes, turning back the clock to reach the third round of the US Open hardcourt tuneup event.
“I played very good tennis,” Tsonga said. “Everything went OK. Just very happy to go through. It’s good to see some results for all the hard work.”
Tsonga, who lost his only Grand Slam final to Novak Djokovic at the 2008 Australian Open, had dropped six matches in a row against top-10 rivals since beating fifth-ranked German Alexander Zverev in October 2017 in a Vienna quarter-final.
Russian third seed Daniil Medvedev reached the third round by ousting US wildcard Bjorn Fratangelo 6-3 6-4.
The world number 10 might face an injured rival in the third round as 40th-ranked hometown favorite Frances Tiafoe beat Kazakhstan’s Alexander Bublik 6-1 7-6 (7/5) then quickly departed with a foot injury.