American Madison Keys and No. 2 Aryna Sabalenka breezed into the US Open third round on Wednesday, while reigning Wimbledon champion Barbora Krejcikova became the third women’s top-10 seed to fall.
No. 14 seed Keys, a US Open finalist in 2017 and crowd favorite, sprinted past incoming Texas freshman Maya Joint 6-4, 6-0 in 62 minutes. She next faces No. 33 Elise Mertens of Belgium.
“After the first set I feel like I made a few adjustments on my returns just to put a little bit more pressure on her,” said Keys, who retired from her two previous tournaments at Wimbledon and Toronto. “And I felt like once I was able to get a little bit out ahead I really just ran with the moment and was able to close it out really well.”
Keys, who made her major main draw debut at the 2011 US Open, has 60 wins at hard-court Slams, third most among women in that span after only Serena Williams and Victoria Azarenka.
Sabalenka, one of the favorites to win the tournament, faced little resistance from Lucia Bronzetti in a routine 6-3, 6-1 win. She put her punishing serve to good use, pounding five aces to just one double fault, and did not face a break point.
Sabalenka, last year’s US Open runner-up, improved to 13-1 in major matches this year and has now won 27 of the 29 sets she’s played this season in slams. The only sets she’s lost came in her French Open quarterfinal loss to Mirra Andreeva.
Next up for Sabalenka is a third-round meeting with 29th seed Ekaterina Alexandrova, who needed three sets to get past 16-year-old American Iva Jovic 4-6, 6-4, 7-5.
The No. 8-seeded Krejcikova lost to qualifier Elena-Gabriela Ruse (world No. 122) 6-4, 7-5, joining No. 9 Maria Sakkari and No. 10 Jelena Ostapenko in making an early exit from Flushing Meadows.
Krejcikova won her second Grand Slam singles title this summer, but she didn’t play any matches after the Paris Olympics. She acknowledged last week not knowing where her level of play was.
Turns out, it wasn’t good enough.
“I mean, winning Wimbledon is amazing. It’s a great, great, great result, I’m very proud about it and how I was able to handle everything there,” said Krejcikova, who hadn’t played a tournament on hard courts since February.
“I think I was playing quite well, definitely better than in the first match. I think my game was improving, but it just wasn’t enough.”
Ruse got much more work on the US Open’s hard courts while playing her way into the main draw through the qualifying…
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