NEW YORK, Aug 30: World number one Iga Swiatek started her US Open campaign with a straight-sets win over Italian Jasmine Paolini at the Louis Armstrong Stadium in New York on Tuesday.
Top seed Swiatek, who won the 2022 French Open, beat Paolini 6-3, 6-0 to reach the second round where she will face either 2017 US Open champion Sloane Stephens or Belgian Greet Minnen.
Eighth-seeded American Jessica Pegula had no problems in defeating Swiss player Viktorija Golubic 6-2, 6-2 at Grandstand. Pegula's second-round opponent will be either Italian qualifier Elisabetta Cocciaretto or Aliaksandra Sasnovich of Belarus.
In other first round matches, Kaia Kanepi beat Tereza Martincova 7-6, 6-3, Leylah Annie Fernandez beat Oceane Dodin 6-3, 6-4, 9th seed Garbiñe Muguruza beat Clara Tauson 6-3, 7-6 (5), Marie Bouzkova beat Linda Noskova 6-2, 6-7, 6-2.
The 16th seed Jelena Ostapenko was stunned by Qinwen Zheng 6-3, 3-6, 6-4.
The 6th seed Aryna Sabalenka beat Catherine Harrison 6-1, 6-3, 22nd seed Karolina Pliskova Magda Linette 6-2, 4-6, 7-6 (8), Linda Fruhvirtova beat Wang Xinyu 6-3, 6-4,
No. 17 seed Caroline Garcia opened her campaign with a 6-2, 6-4 scoreline over lucky loser Kamilla Rakhimova while Maria Sakkari survived a scare as she advanced with a three sets victory in early women's singles action.
In men's section on Tuesday, 17th seed Grigor Dimitrov beat Steve Johnson 6-3, 6-2, 6-2, 7th seed Cameron Norrie beat Benoit Paire 6-0, 7-6, 6-0, Brandon Nakashima beat Pavel Kotov 7-6, 6-2, 6-2.
On Monday, Sakkari returned to the scene where she tore through the 2021 US Open wom'n's draw, riding on a high of a breakthrough season that saw her crack the Top 10 for the first time in her career, determined to change the narrative. She opened her 2022 campaign with an emphatic 6-4, 3-6, 6-0 win over Tatjana Maria of Germany. Agencies
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