{"id":17456,"date":"2025-08-25T06:04:03","date_gmt":"2025-08-25T06:04:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/?p=17456"},"modified":"2025-08-25T06:04:03","modified_gmt":"2025-08-25T06:04:03","slug":"sabalenka-into-us-open-second-round","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/?p=17456","title":{"rendered":"Sabalenka into US Open second round"},"content":{"rendered":"
Aryna Sabalenka launched the defence of her US Open crown with a victory on Sunday while Novak Djokovic made a successful start to his latest bid for a record 25th Grand Slam singles title.<\/p>\n

World number one Sabalenka, who is bidding to become the first woman to claim back-to-back US Open titles since Serena Williams completed a hat-trick of wins in 2014, was made to work hard en route to a 7-5, 6-1 victory over Switzerland’s Rebeka Masarova.<\/p>\n

Masarova, ranked 108th in the world, pushed Sabalenka out of her comfort zone with a gutsy performance on the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center’s main Arthur Ashe Stadium showcourt.<\/p>\n

“Happy to get this win and happy to be in the second round. I feel like I didn’t start my best in the first games, but then I found my rhythm,” said Sabalenka, who will face unseeded Russian Polina Kudermetova in the second round.<\/p>\n

While Sabalenka advanced safely, Danish 14th seed Clara Tauson tumbled out to Alexandra Eala.<\/p>\n

Eala, 20, became the first player from the Philippines to win a Grand Slam singles match with a thrilling 6-3, 2-6, 7-6 (13\/11) win, battling back from a 5-1 deficit in the final set to advance.<\/p>\n

“I’m super over the moon with what I was able to do today, especially coming back in the third,” Eala said.<\/p>\n

“It’s a very special win for me.”<\/p>\n

Another player from Southeast Asia — Indonesia’s Janice Tjen — also bagged an upset, ousting Russian 24th seed Veronika Kudermetova 6-4, 4-6, 6-4 to move on.<\/p>\n

“I feel proud to be able to do this for my country,” said Tjen, the first Indonesian since Angelique Widjaja in 2004 to reach the main draw of a Grand Slam singles event.<\/p>\n

Tjen, ranked 149th in the world, will face Britain’s Emma Raducanu in the second round.<\/p>\n

Raducanu, who made history at Flushing Meadows in 2021 by becoming the first qualifier to lift a Grand Slam title, clinched her first US Open match win since that memorable triumph with a 6-1, 6-2 drubbing of Japan’s Ena Shibahara.<\/p>\n

“I wanted to win a match here really bad,” said Raducanu.<\/p>\n

“It’s been four years, and it’s a very special tournament for me.”<\/p>\n

With men’s defending champion Jannik Sinner and rival Carlos Alcaraz not opening their first-round campaigns until Monday and Tuesday, all eyes were on the veteran Serbian star Djokovic in Sunday’s night session on Ashe.<\/p>\n

The 38-year-old showed flashes of brilliance in a 6-1, 7-6 (7\/3), 6-2 win against his unseeded 19-year-old American opponent Learner Tien.<\/p>\n

Djokovic raced through the first set but was then forced to save a set point in the second after Tien grew in confidence.<\/p>\n

A lengthy medical time out to treat what looked like a blister on his right foot helped revive Djokovic and he pulled away to wrap up victory in 2hr 25min.<\/p>\n

“Great to be back in New York,” Djokovic said. “I wish I had Learner Tien’s age — when you come to the late 30s it’s about learning how to preserve the energy for what matters.<\/p>\n

“I still have the flair, I still have the drive, and you guys give me the energy,” he told the crowd. “Hopefully I can keep it going.”<\/p>\n

Fourth seed Taylor Fritz and sixth seed Ben Shelton eased into the second round.<\/p>\n

Fritz, last year’s beaten finalist and a semi-finalist at Wimbledon last month, won 7-5, 6-2, 6-3 against unseeded compatriot Emilio Nava.<\/p>\n

Shelton had a similarly comfortable 6-3, 6-2, 6-4 defeat of Peruvian qualifier Ignacio Buse.<\/p>\n

Shelton and Fritz are spearheading US hopes of a first Grand Slam men’s singles title since Andy Roddick’s victory at the 2003 US Open.<\/p>\n

Shelton insisted he was not looking beyond the second round, where he will face Spain’s Pablo Carreno Busta.<\/p>\n

“As soon as you start looking ahead, you stumble over your own feet. So just one game at a time,” he said.<\/p>\n

Czech 16th seed Jakub Mensik edged Chile’s Nicolas Jarry 7-6 (7\/5), 6-3, 6-4 and Spanish 18th seed Alejandro Davidovich Fokina breezed past Alexander Shevchenko of Kazakhstan 6-1, 6-1, 6-2.<\/p>\n

Italy’s 32nd seed Luciano Darderi eliminated Australia’s Rinky Hijikata 6-2, 6-1, 6-2.<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Aryna Sabalenka launched the defence of her US Open crown with a victory on Sunday while Novak Djokovic made a successful start to his latest bid for a record 25th Grand Slam singles title. World number one Sabalenka, who is bidding to become the first woman to claim back-to-back US Open titles since Serena Williams […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17456","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-english-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17456","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=17456"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17456\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=17456"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=17456"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=17456"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}