Murray & Serena Win Easily but Raonic and Muguruza Make Early Exits from 2016 US Open

While second-seed Andy Murray of Great Britain and women’s top seed Serena Williams reached the second round of 2016 US Open, Canadian Milos Raonic and French Open champion Garbine Muguruza were bundled out by their little-known opponents. Men’s top seed Novak Djokovic and no.4 seed Rafael Nadal advanced to the third round as also the German women’s second seed Angelique Kerber. Some notable winners over the last two days were; 2014 US Open and 2016 Cincinnati champion 7th-seeded Marin Cilic, 10th-seeded Frenchman Gael Monfils and his 9th-seeded compatriot Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, 3rd seeded Swiss Stan Wawrinka and 6th-seeded Japanese Kei Nishikori.

Andy Murray played with great control against the tricky Czech, Lukas Rosol in his first round on Tuesday night. Without conceding a single break point throughout the match, Murray broke Rosol’s service 5 times and boomed down 11 aces in his 6-3, 6-2, 6-2 victory in just under 2 hours. The 2016 Rio gold medalist Murray looked too good against Rosol in the first 15 minutes of the match and left no doubt about his imminent and comprehensive victory.  The Brit’s second round opponent will be Spain’s Marcel Granollers, who had to work hard before beating Argentina’s Juan Monaco 7-6, 7-6, 6-4 in a match that lasted 2 hours 47 minutes.

Women’s top seed Serena Williams of USA came out with flying colors in her opening round match against Russia’s Ekaterina Makarova. Serena played for just 62 minutes, in which she allowed no respite to the Russian doubles specialist. Serena broke Makarova’s service in the sixth game of the first set to lead 4-2 and closed out the set with an ace. The second set was a replica of the first because the American once again picked up the sixth game to break the Russian and led 4-2. She finished the match with a 6-3, 6-3 victory by hitting her 27th winner of the night. The last time Serena played at Arthur Ashe was in 2015 semifinal against Italy’s Roberta Vinci but suffered a shock defeat that denied her a chance of the historic calendar Grand Slam. The world no.1 will play her second round against compatriot Vania King, who is more famous as a doubles player.

Wednesday’s biggest shock was the second-round loss of Canada’s Milos Raonic, who was shown the door by US qualifier Ryan Harrison. The Wimbledon finalist Raonic, who also reached this year’s Australian Open semifinals, was one of the favorites to win the tournament. Incidentally in both the earlier Grand Slams, Raonic had lost to Andy Murray. Against Harrison, the Canadian developed cramps on his arm and suffered an energy drain. When he walked out of the court with a 7-6, 5-7, 5-7, 1-6 loss, he struggled to even carry his bags.

Another seeded player, who made an early exit on Wednesday was women’s no.3 seed Garbine Muguruza of Spain. The 2016 French Open champion was done in 7-5, 6-4 by Latvia’s Anastasija Sevastova. The 48th-ranked Sevastova began shaking in the closing stages of the match but came through finally. By Wednesday, several women’s seeds have exited the tournament, beginning with Rio gold winner Puerto Rican Monica Puig on Monday. Others, who lost on Tuesday and Wednesday were; Russian 9th seed Svetlana Kuznetsova, Czech 18th seed Barbora Strycova, Dutch 20th seed Kiki Bertens, Romanian 21st seed Irina-Camelia Begu, Russian 23rd seed Daria Kasatkina, Italian 27th seed Sara Errani, American 28th seed  Coco Vandeweghe, Serbian 29th seed Ana Ivanovic and Japanese 30th seed Misaki Doi.

Men’s top-seeded Novak Djokovic reached the third round with a walk-over on Czech Jiri Vesely, who withdrew before their match and no.4 seeded Rafael Nadal defeated Italian Andreas Seppi 6-0, 7-5, 6-1 to also enter the third round. Croatia’s Marin Cilic, Frenchmen Gael Monfils and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga also reached the third round. Seventh-seeded Marin Cilic defeated Ukraine’s Sergiy Stakhovsky 6-1, 6-2, 6-3 for a  fourth round showdown with American Jack Sock. Ninth seeded Tsonga outlasted Australian James Duckworth 6-4, 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 and Tsonga’s compatriot 10th seed Gael Monfils beat Czech qualifier Jan Satral 7-5, 6-4, 6-3. Earlier on Tuesday, no.3 seeded Swiss Stan Wawrinka won his first round match by defeating Spain’s Fernando Verdasco 7-6, 6-4, 6-4 and Japan’s sixth-seeded Kei Nishikori beat Germany’s Benjamin Becker 6-1, 6-1, 3-6, 6-3. In women’s draw, second-seeded Germany’s Angelique Kerber defeated Croatia’s Mirjana Lucic-Baroni 6-2, 7-6 to set up a third-round clash with USA’s 17-year-old qualifier Cici Bellis, who came through by beating compatriot Shelby Rogers 2-6, 6-2, 6-2.