No. 2 Halep, No. 4 Wozniacki avoid upset bug at U.S. Open
Andy Murray was only briefly troubled by Nick Kyrgios in the most-anticipated match of the U.S. Open's first round.
The third-seeded Murray, who won the title at Flushing Meadows in 2012, hit 18 aces and saved 11 of 14 break points en route to 7-5, 6-3, 4-6, 6-1 victory over Kyrgios on Tuesday night.
Murray was mostly steady in the face of Kyrgios' various antics, which included appearing to take a nap during changeovers, smashing his racket and earning a warning from the chair umpire for cursing aloud.
"It's important when you're playing against him," Murray said, "to just concentrate on your side of the court."
Kyrgios has drawn a lot of unwanted attention lately, stemming from his trash-talking to Stan Wawrinka during a match in Montreal last month. Kyrgios was caught by courtside microphones making a comment about Wawrinka's girlfriend, earning a fine from the ATP, which also put the 20-year-old Australian on six months' probation. That warning applies only to ATP events, though; Grand Slam tournaments such as the U.S. Open are sanctioned by the International Tennis Federation.
After dropping the first two sets to Murray, Kyrgios leaned back in his chair and rested his head, looking as if he might be ready to take a nap during changeovers.
He apparently never did fall asleep, though, because he kept playing, well enough to take the third set and force a fourth. But now he has the next two weeks to catch up on his sleep.
Second-seeded Roger Federer had an even easier time than Murray, routing Leonardo Mayer of Argentina 6-1, 6-2, 6-2 on Tuesday.
Federer saved the lone break point he faced and was done in a brisk 77 minutes. The 34th-ranked Mayer had given the 17-time Grand Slam champion trouble in their only previous meeting, when Federer saved five match points to win in three sets in Shanghai last year.
Federer arrived in New York after winning his 87th career title at Cincinnati, where he posted back-to-back victories against Murray and Novak Djokovic.
On the women's side, Caroline Wozniacki crashed John Isner's post-match news conference, needling her good friend for arriving late to his interview session and delaying the start of hers.
The fourth-seeded Wozniacki was in quite a hurry Tuesday, when she needed just 67 minutes to win at the U.S. Open against an opponent making her Grand Slam debut. Those sorts of lopsided victories have been rare among the top women so far in the first round.
Of the first 25 seeded players to take the court, nine lost. Half of the top 10 women are already out, counting third-seeded Maria Sharapova's withdrawal because of injury.
This comes in a year when the main spectacle is whether Serena Williams can complete the first Grand Slam since Steffi Graf in 1988. Less than two days into the tournament, fewer and fewer top rivals stand in her way.
Wearing it with pride: Carolina Wozniacki sports a manicure inspired by the flag of her native Denmark during Tuesday’s U.S. Open first round.
Even with Wozniacki in the audience, Isner stated the obvious about the women's field.
''Caroline's got as good a shot as anyone. Obviously Serena is the favorite,'' the 13th-seeded American said after his own straight-set win.
Sixth-seeded Lucie Safarova, who pushed Williams to three sets in the French Open final, was upset by 37th-ranked Lesia Tsurenko earlier Tuesday. She said after losing 6-4, 6-1 that she was bothered by a strained abdominal muscle on her right side that she hurt in losing the New Haven final Saturday.
Like Wozniacki, second-seeded Simona Halep had no trouble, moving on in 47 minutes on a hot, humid day when Marina Erakovic retired in the second set. Halep was leading 6-2, 3-0.
Wozniacki, last year's U.S. Open runner-up to Williams, beat NCAA champion Jamie Loeb 6-2, 6-0. The 20-year-old Loeb earned a wild card into the draw by winning the college title as a sophomore at North Carolina.
Just four seeded women lost in the first round last year. Since the tournament started seeding 32 players in 2000, the largest number of women's seeds to fall in the opening round was 10 in 2012.
On the men's side, second-seeded Roger Federer routed Leonardo Mayer of Argentina 6-1, 6-2, 6-2 in a brisk 77 minutes. The 34th-ranked Mayer had given the 17-time Grand Slam champion trouble in their only previous meeting, when Federer saved five match points to win in three sets in Shanghai last year.
''I actually wasn't so confident yesterday and today,'' he said. ''I just felt like maybe could be one of those matches I just couldn't see it coming. So thankfully I took this match extremely serious. I thought at times almost I was taking it a bit too serious. I got that lucky in Shanghai, so that's why it was just creeping around in my mind that maybe today was going to be a bad day.''
American Donald Young rallied from down two sets and a break to stun 11th-seeded Gilles Simon. The 68th-ranked Young won 2-6, 4-6, 6-4, 6-4, 6-4 in 3 hours, 34 minutes with a packed Court 17 urging him on.
The 26-year-old Young's career has been one of extremes, a one-time teen prodigy who has stumbled through some long losing streaks as a pro. He reached his second ATP final at Delray Beach in February, dropped nine straight tour-level matches from March through August, and then upset sixth-ranked Tomas Berdych in Montreal this month.
Young had never before come back to win after losing the first two sets.
Simon had been 5-0 against Young. The Frenchman lost in the opening round for the first time in nine appearances at Flushing Meadows.
The U.S. Open is the only Grand Slam tournament where Petra Kvitova has never reached the semifinals. She has never even been to the quarterfinals at Flushing Meadows. Says she's not a big fan of all the hustle and bustle of the place.
That might be so, but the two-time Wimbledon champion had zero problems in the first round Tuesday night, needing about an hour for a 6-1, 6-1 victory over 126th-ranked Laura Siegemund, a qualifier from Germany.
Kvitova, seeded fifth, arrived in New York coming off a hard-court tuneup title in New Haven, Connecticut, and looked good in the final match of the U.S. Open's first round.
Nothing controversial happened Tuesday, but Kyrgios was not exactly concerned with containing himself.
Oddly, he leaned all the way back in his changeover chair during breaks, closing his eyes and resting against his towel or clutching it like a kid's blanket, looking as if about to doze off for a nap. He spiked his racket against the court and later whacked it against a wall behind the baseline. He was given a warning by chair umpire Carlos Ramos for swearing too loudly. He complained to Ramos that spectators were being allowed to wander to their seats during a game. He won a point with the help of a shot between his legs. He whiffed on a leaping overhead attempt.
Boris Becker, a six-time major champion as a player and now No. 1 Novak Djokovic's coach, sat courtside during the match. In an on-air interview during ESPN's broadcast, Becker said Kyrgios could stand to talk a little less and "should be famous for his on-court performance and not his antics."
The whole Montreal episode has been the talk of tennis over the past few weeks.
"I've been dealing with that pretty well. Obviously it's been tough. But I think I've moved on from it," the 20-year-old Kyrgios said at Tuesday's post-match news conference. "I'd like to think that I'm going to learn from it. I think I have. I think I'm on the right path. I don't think any of us in this room right now were perfect at 20. Speak up if you were."
When that was greeted by silence from reporters, Kyrgios nodded and said: "Thought so."
Later, asked what he meant by saying he had learned something along the way, Kyrgios replied: "Keep your mouth shut at times."
Murray was asked to weigh in before facing Kyrgios, a 20-year-old Australian who is ranked 37th and is talented enough to have stunned Rafael Nadal at Wimbledon last year and beaten Roger Federer this year.
"He's a young guy, and we all make mistakes, and everyone here when they were 19, 20, would have done some bad things and made some mistakes, and for him, it's unfortunate that's its happening in front of millions of millions of people," said Murray, the 2012 U.S. Open champion. "And I think it's wrong, a lot of the things that he's done, but I also think that he's still young, and everyone's different. People mature and grow up at different rates."
Asked Tuesday about the tour's handling of the matter, Wawrinka, a two-time major champion who could face Murray in the U.S. Open quarterfinals, said: "I don't care much about that anymore."
Kokkinakis, similarly, had this to say when asked about what happened in Montreal: "We talked. It's sorted. It's not really an issue for me, anyway, at the moment. I've known (Kyrgios) for ages. One little thing isn't going to change too much. That's not ideal what happened, but I've talked to him. I've talked to everyone in the incident. I've moved past it and I'm sure they will, too."
Moments later, Kokkinakis told reporters: "I've moved past it. I'm sure you guys will at some point, too."
Kokkinakis spoke after stopping because of cramps against 12th-seeded Richard Gasquet, one of a record 12 mid-match retirements in the first round at Flushing Meadows, where the temperature has topped 90 degrees and the humidity has been heavy.
The previous mark for most players quitting because of injury or illness during any round of any Grand Slam tournament in the professional era, which dates to 1968, was nine in the first round of the 2011 U.S. Open.
Ten men and two women have dropped out so far, including five Tuesday: Kokkinakis, Marcos Baghdatis, Ernests Gulbis, Aleksandr Nedovyesov and Marina Erakovic.
"For sure," Wawrinka said, "it's surprising to see so many players pull out."
