U.S Open Day 2 recap: Federer rolls, American women have a great day

Author:
Courtney Nguyen
Publish date:
Aug 26, 2014

NEW YORK -- Things remained relatively calm on Day 2 of the U.S. Open. There have been no major upsets and the tournament favorites are looking sharp. So leave it to a California teenager to cause a frenzy.

What happened

The top seeds cruised: No. 2 seed Roger Federer put on a clinic under the lights at Arthur Ashe Stadium while Michael Jordan and Anna Wintour applauded from his box. Federer beat Marinko Matosevic 6-3, 6-4, 7-6 (4) and looked sharp. David Ferrer, Kei Nishikori and John Isner also won. The only seed to lose on the men's side was Lukas Rosol, who lost to 17-year-old Borna Coric 6-4, 6-2, 6-1. Playing the week before a Slam is always a risk. Rosol just won the Winston-Salem Open on Saturday.

On the women's side three seeds lost: Dominika Cibulkova, Svetlana Kuznetsova and Zhang Shuai. But when it comes to tournament favorites, the speed bumps were minimal. Petra Kvitova lost just one game to Kristina Mladenovic and Eugenie Bouchard dropped just three games in beating Olga Govortsova. Ana Ivanovic and Sam Stosur also cruised without losing a set.

Victoria Azarenka showed her grit to hold off Misaki Doi: Azarenka says the knee injury that forced her to withdraw from the Western & Southern Open is better, which is the good news. She's still not at her best but she remained competitive, beating Doi 6-7 (3), 6-4, 6-1 to advance. Her draw opened up considerably with Kuznetsova's surprising loss.

15-year-old CiCi Bellis steals the spotlight: Playing her first WTA-level main draw match in front of a massive crowd on Court 6, Bellis stunned No. 12 seed Cibulkova 6-1, 4-6, 6-4 in her Grand Slam debut. Having earned her wild card by winning the Girls' 18s National Championship, Bellis showed great poise and maturity in rallying from a 1-3 deficit in the final set to seal the win. All tennis players say they love playing in front of a crowd, but this kid really did. Bellis plays No. 48 Zarina Diyas in the next round.

American women get it done in the first round: A few weeks ago in Cincinnati, Madison Keys was asked about the state of American men's tennis vs. American women's tennis and she stated the obvious: "I think the girls are a little bit happier with the situation right now." It's been a strong first round for the American women. On Tuesday they went 6-0 against unseeded opponents -- they're 7-0 overall -- with players like CoCo Vandeweghe, Nicole Gibbs, Varvara Lepchenko, Shelby Rogers and Vania King winning. Keys, seeded No. 27, looked very sharp against Jarmila Gajdosova, winning 6-0, 6-3.

American men fought hard with mixed results: Isner didn't lose a set to American wild card Marcos Giron, though the 21-year-old Giron acquitted himself well in a 7-6 (5), 6-2, 7-6 (2) loss. Sam Querrey needed five sets to beat Maximo Gonzalez, and Tim Smyczek, who was the last American standing last year, beat Filip Krajinovic to advance. Eighteen-year-old Noah Rubin and 17-year-old Jared Donaldson took respectable losses, to Federico Delbonis and Gael Monfils, respectively. But...

Jack Sock retired with an injury: Sock had a good summer and had an opportunity to make a run with his draw. But he retired down 6-4, 3-6, 6-1 with a calf injury. He's now racing to get healthy for doubles with his partner Vasek Pospisil.

Photo of the day

Eugenie Bouchard fell to the ground after winning her first-round match with Olga Govortsova.
Al Bello/Getty Images

Photo of the day: That's a lot of tape edition

Olga Govortsova needed a fair amount of tape in her first-round loss to Eugenie Bouchard.
Alex Goodlett/Getty Images

Quote of the day

Madison Keys answers the question about "The Death of American Tennis" perfectly:

I definitely think we're one of the countries with the most people in the top 100. I think we're one of the only countries with as many people in Grand Slams consecutively. So when people say that American tennis is dead and things like that, you know, you kind of take it a little personal. Someone went as far as to say that Serena Williams is the only American player, male or female, worth talking about or watching or anything like that. So I took that a little personal. But I think Serena's amazing. She's out there, she's winning Grand Slams. She's going for her 18th Grand Slam now. I think you have to kind of put it in perspective that she's one of the greatest of all time. I think a lot of times people expect every American to live up to that standard, and that's not going to happen. You know, there's only so many Serena Williams or Chris Everts or Martina Navratilovas. I definitely think American tennis is getting better and there are more people in the top 100 and competing in Grand Slams. So I think everyone is kind of expecting a lot. But then they're also not giving us full credit. I think everyone is just a little impatient right now because there was definitely a lull for a while where there weren't many people, but I think we're definitely getting better. I think in the next five years there will be a big group of Americans.