Kvitova, Bouchard, Ivanovic advance at U.S. Open

Published February 05, 2015

Flushing Meadows, NY (SportsNetwork.com) - Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova, rising Canadian star Eugenie Bouchard and former world No. 1 Ana Ivanovic were easy first-round victors Tuesday at the U.S. Open.

The hot third-seeded Czech slugger Kvitova has now won her last eight Grand Slam matches after flattening helpless Frenchwoman Kristina Mladenovic 6-1, 6-0 in 54 minutes at Ashe Stadium.

Kvitova captured her second Wimbledon title in four years last month and is fresh off her hardcourt title in New Haven last week.

The seventh-seeded Bouchard improved to 17-3 at this year's Grand Slam events by blitzing Belarusian Olga Govortsova 6-2, 6-1, while the eighth-seeded Serbian star Ivanovic routed American Alison Riske 6-3, 6-0 at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center.

The 20-year-old Wimbledon runner-up Bouchard is the only woman to appear in at least the semifinals at this year's first three majors. Ivanovic is a former French Open champion.

A big upset came when 15-year-old American CiCi Bellis took out 12th-seeded Aussie Open runner-up Dominika Cibulkova of Slovakia 6-1, 4-6, 6-4 on Court 6. The San Francisco native and world No. 2 junior Bellis, making her Grand Slam debut, is ranked 1,208th in the world and is the youngest player to win a U.S. Open match since Anna Kournikova in 1996.

Reigning two-time U.S. Open runner-up and two-time Aussie Open champ Victoria Azarenka, a former world No. 1 seeded 16th at this fortnight, moved on by overcoming Japanese Misaki Doi 6-7 (3-7), 6-4, 6-1.

The on-the-mend Azarenka missed three months of action this year while being sidelined with a foot injury. Her second-round opponent will be American Christina McHale.

A pair of former U.S. Open champs had different results on Day 2, as New Zealand's Marina Erakovic took out 20th-seeded Russian Svetlana Kuznetsova 3-6, 6-2, 7-6 (7-3) and 24th-seeded Aussie Samantha Stosur handled American Lauren Davis 6-1, 6-4. Kuznetsova titled here 10 years ago and was the Open runner-up in 2007, while Stosur captured her lone Grand Slam singles title in Flushing in 2011.

Meanwhile, 11th-seeded Italian Flavia Pennetta held off German Julia Goerges 6-3, 4-6, 6-1.

In other action involving seeds, No. 29 Aussie Casey Dellacqua erased Austrian Patricia Mayr-Achleitner 7-5, 6-3, No. 30 Czech Barbora Zahlavova Strycova subdued Aussie Ashleigh Barty 6-1, 6-3, and German Mona Barthel upended No. 32 Chinese Zhang Shuai 6-1, 6-2.

In other play featuring Americans, McHale snuck past South African Chanelle Scheepers 6-2, 1-6, 7-6 (7-5), Varvara Lepchenko bested Belgian Alison Van Uytvanck 7-5, 6-2, and Shelby Rogers beat Ukrainian Maryna Zanevska 6-4, 6-3.

Several other women reached the second round, including Estonian Kaia Kanepi and Romanian Sorana Cirstea.

URL

https://www.foxnews.com/sports/kvitova-bouchard-ivanovic-advance-at-u-s-open