NEW YORK (AP) — The final two ladies’s champions have been already out of the U.S. Open and now certainly one of final yr’s semifinalists is gone.
High gamers are falling quick in Flushing Meadows, and Serena Williams can topple one other Wednesday evening.
Hours earlier than Williams was set to face No. 2 seed Anett Kontaveit, third-seeded Maria Sakkari was ousted 3-6, 7-5, 7-5 by Wang Xiyu of China within the second spherical.
Sakkari reached two Grand Slam semifinals final yr however has had a troublesome time backing up her success in 2022, acknowledging this week that she struggled to deal with the next profile that got here together with her rise to No. 3 within the rankings. She mentioned some days she didn’t take pleasure in tennis and didn’t even wish to get off the bed.
The Greek mentioned she was happier coming into this match however her sport simply wasn’t fairly ok towards the Seventy fifth-ranked Wang, who superior previous the second spherical of a serious for the primary time.
“It’s disappointing, it hurts, as a result of I used to be feeling higher, I used to be having fun with myself, feeling good on the courtroom and it was simply very disappointing that my stage was that low immediately,” Sakkari mentioned.
Sakkari’s loss got here after defending champion Emma Raducanu and two-time winner Naomi Osaka have been eradicated Tuesday evening within the first spherical. That left Bianca Andreescu, who beat Williams within the 2019 remaining, as the latest U.S. Open ladies’s champion nonetheless within the discipline.
Andreescu was set to face No. 15 seed Beatriz Haddad Maia on Wednesday evening.
Coming off her run to the Wimbledon finals, No. 5 Ons Jabeur matched her finest U.S. Open consequence with a 7-5, 6-2 victory over Elizabeth Mandlik, the daughter of 1985 champion Hana Mandlikova. Jabeur misplaced within the third spherical in every of her final three journeys to New York.
“I’ve a mission,” Jabeur mentioned. “I’m No. 5 on the earth, so for me I’m making an attempt to symbolize that quantity as a lot as I can so I can actually enhance my sport and I can actually proceed and enhance my rating, hopefully.”
She’s going to play American Shelby Rogers, the No. 31 seed who beat Viktoria Kuzmova 7-5, 6-1.
Different high People making an attempt to advance Wednesday included No. 12 Coco Gauff and 2017 U.S. Open runner-up Madison Keys, the No. 20 seed.
Defending males’s champion Daniil Medvedev was set to observe Williams on Arthur Ashe Stadium, with 2012 champion Andy Murray, No. 6 Felix Auger-Aliassime and Wimbledon runner-up Nick Kyrgios additionally in motion.
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Extra AP protection of U.S. Open tennis: https://apnews.com/hub/us-open-tennis-championships and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports
