Venus Williams leads seeds tumbling out of Open
MELBOURNE: Venus Williams and US Open champion Sloane Stephens led a string of seeds sent tumbling out of the Australian Open Monday in a calamitous day for American players.
Williams, who lost in the final to sister Serena last year, was stunned by Swiss star Belinda Bencic, fresh from winning the Hopman Cup with Roger Federer. after slumping to Hungary’s Timea Babos 7- 6 (7/4), 6-2.
With Stephens also sent packing, it was a bad day for the United States, in stark contrast to the last Grand Slam of 2017, when they all made the semis at the US Open, leaving the women’s draw in Melbourne more unpredicable than ever.
The 2014 runner-up in Melbourne and 24th seed Dominika Cibulkova of Slovakia also departed, 6-2, 6-2 to Kaia Kanepi of Estonia.
And the US mi sery was compounded on the men’s side with 16th-seeded John Isner being toppled by Australian Matthew Ebden.
Other seeded casualties included 2017 US Open finalist Kevin Anderson, who was bundled out a in a five-set thriller by Britain’s Kyle Edmund.
Third seed Grigor Dimitrov survived, breezing into the second round, as did 10th seeded Spaniard Pablo Carreno-Busta.
Stephens’ poor run since winning at Flushing Meadows in September continued, with the 13th seed crashing out to Chinese number two Zhang Shuai, who made the last eight two years ago.
T h e st ruggl ing Stephens put in an error-strewn performance on an overcast a nd wi ndy Melbourne day and has now not won in eight matches.
“I’m not going to get too down,” she said after her 2- 6, 76 ( 7/2), 6-2 defeat.
There was better luck for French Open champion Jelena Ostapenko, who saw off F rancesca Schiavone 61, 6- 4.
T h e seventh seed raced through the first set on Rod Laver Arena against the veteran Italian who was bizarrely wearing a back brace on the outside of her shirt, before a tougher second set. “I knew before the match that it’s not going to be easy. She’s very experienced player and she’s very long time on tour,” said the Latvian. Also into the next round with a straight sets win was German 12th seed Julia Goerges, who won the lead-up Auckland Classic and is now on a 15-match unbeaten streak having ended 2017 with victories at Moscow and Zhuhai. World number two Caroline Wozniacki, who lost to Goerges in that New Zealand decider, plays later Monday, along with men’s top seed Rafael Nadal. Sixteen- time Grand Slam champion Nadal insists he is feeling fine despite struggling with a knee injury and ready to go deep at an event that he has only won once – in 2009 – among his string of major triumphs. Nadal, who faces the Dominican Republ ic’s Victor Estrella Burgos, lost an epic Aust ral ian Open f inal last year to Federer, who gets his c a mp a i g n u nde r way on Tuesday. — AFP