Sofia Kenin, the 2020 Australian Open champion who is looking to improve on a rough season, registered a first-round upset at the San Diego Open on Tuesday.
The 24-year-old American beat sixth-seeded Veronika Kudermetova of Russia 6-4, 6-4. Kenin hasn’t advanced to the quarterfinals of an event since getting to the semis at Hobart, Australia, in January.
Another seeded Russian player fell on Tuesday, as No. 8 Ekaterina Alexandrova lost to Latvia’s Jelena Ostapenko 7-6 (3), 6-7 (6), 7-5. Ostapenko squandered a match point in the second set but eventually prevailed.
Ukraine’s Marta Kostyuk and the U.S. pair of Danielle Collins and Sloane Stephens won their opening-round matches in straight sets. In the final match of the night, seventh-seeded Beatriz Haddad Maia of Brazil defeated 2021 U.S. Open finalist Leylah Fernandez of Canada 6-3, 5-7, 6-2.
Japan Open
Top-seeded Lin Zhu won an all-Chinese first-round match in Osaka, Japan, squeezing past Xiyu Wang 6-4, 6-4.
Zhu got the only break of the first set for a 4-3 lead. Wang couldn’t take advantage of her only break points of the match at 1-2 in the second set, and Zhu broke in the next game.
Canada’s Rebecca Marino upset seventh-seeded Nao Hibino of Japan 6-3, 6-4. Other first-round winners were France’s Jessika Ponchet, Russia’s Anna Kalinskaya, the Netherlands’ Arianne Hartono, Japan’s Mai Hontama and Himeno Sakatsume.
–Field Level Media
