Serena named US Open top seed
Simona Halep seeded second followed by Petra Kvitova while Russia’s Sharapova is fifth seed
NEW YORK: Two-time defending champion Serena Williams was named the top seed Wednesday for the US Open, the year’s final Grand Slam tennis showdown that opens Monday on the Flushing Meadows hardcourts.
World number one Williams was also the US Open top seed in 2002 and 2013 and each time went on to win the title. She also won the US Open crown in 1999, 2008 and 2012.
Williams is a five-time Wimbledon and Australian Open champion as well and also lists two French Open titles among her 17 Grand Slam singles crowns.
Adding another trophy to her career haul after the Flushing Meadows fortnight would put Williams, 32, level with Martina Navratilova and Chris Evert as the second-best all-time Slam singles title winners of the Open Era, behind Steffi Graf ’s record 22 titles in the span.
A sixth US Open title by Williams would also match Evert for the most in the Open Era.
Romania’s Simona Halep, runner-up at this year’s French Open, was made the second seed followed by Czech Petra Kvitova, who last month captured her second Wimbledon crown, and Poland’s Agnieszka Radwanska in fourth.
Russia’s Maria Sharapova, the reigning French Open champion and 2006 US Open winner, was made the fifth seed. Belarus’ Victoria Azarenka was made the 16th seed. World number one Novak Djokovic, the reigning Wimbledon champion seeking his eighth career Grand Slam singles crown, was named the top seed on the men’s side with 17-time Grand Slam winner Roger Federer, the five-time US Open champion, made the second seed. Andy Murray was seeded eighth. TOP SEED HALEP OUSTED AT NEW HAVEN
NEW HAVEN, UNITED STATES: Slovakia’s Magdalena Rybarikova sent top-seeded Simona Halep crashing out of the WTA Tour’s Connecticut Open in one of two second round upsets on Tuesday at the final US Open tune-up.
Halep, the reigning champ, had her serve broken six times and Rybarikova saved 10 of 14 break opportunities en route to a 6-2, 4-6, 6-3 victory at the Connecticut Tennis Center facility.
Second-seeded Petra Kvitova, last year’s runner-up to Halep, cruised past Ekaterina Makarova 6-2, 6-1 to reach the quarter-finals in a match that lasted just 48 minutes on the hardcourts.
Unseeded Alison Riske became the first player to reach the quarters by upsetting sixth-seeded Italian Flavia Pennetta, 6-1, 7-6 (3).
NIKSHEP SURVIVES JAGTIANI CHALLENGE CHENNAI: Top seed BR Nikshep of Karnataka continued his run squeezing past Sanil Jagtiani of West Bengal in two tie-break sets to enter the boys singles quarter-finals in the MCC-ADIDAS National Junior clay court tennis championship. Basil Khuma of Delhi was an impressive winner against Vaishnav Bendalam while S Manish of Tamil Nadu, a qualifier who stoked freely and positively, put down a tentative Gokul Suresh in three sets. The big surprise in the boys singles came when Vasisht Vinod Cheruka knocked out Aryan Goveas, seeded seventh in straight sets while 15th ranked Nitin Kumar Sinha eliminated fifth seed Paramveer Singh Bajwa in three tight sets.