No top 10-seeded players have been knocked out of the U.S. Open draw yet -- something that couldn’t be said of the last two Grand Slams -- but plenty of upsets over ranked players have occurred through the first two days in the Billie Jean King Tennis Center.
U.S. Open 2013 bracket update: Upsets make draw interesting
A handful of seeded players have gone down in the first round of the U.S. Open, throwing the draw into a bit of flux.
Susan Mullane-USA TODAY Sports
World No. 1 Novak Djokovic looked utterly dominant Tuesday night in dispatching Ricardas Berankis, and the only seeded player he was slated to play in the first three rounds, No. 25 Grigor Dimitrov, was bounced Tuesday by Joao Sousa.
Andy Murray and much of the men’s draw will play for the first time Wednesday, but Murray’s prospective fourth-round opponent, No. 15 Nicolas Almagro, lost in four sets to Denis Istomin. Other seeds that fell were No. 11 Kei Nishikori, which makes No. 7 seed Roger Federer’s path to the quarterfinals that much easier, and No. 14 Jerzy Janowicz, a semifinalist at Wimbledon, in line to play David Ferrer.
On the women’s side, the biggest upset came Tuesday night when 17-year-old American Veronica Duval out-muscled No. 11 Samantha Stosur, the 2011 U.S. Open champ. Duval will next play Daniela Hantuchova, far from an easy opponent. Duval looked superb, and if she can get by Hantuchova, her draw has opened up some with the upset of No. 20 Nadia Petrova. The winner of her match will face the winner of Sachia Vickery and Julia Glushko, two unseeded players with no major wins of note.
Elsewhere in that corner of the draw, Victoria Azarenka who beat Dinah Pfizenmaier, 6-0, 6-0, must have been happy watching No. 17 Dominika Cibulkova fall in straight sets to Elina Svitolina. Twelfth-seeded Kirsten Flipkens was the only other seeded woman to fall, but one can hardly blame her for losing to Venus Williams. Venus still looms in No. 8 Angelique Kerber’s side of the draw.
More from SB Nation:
See More:
