Canada’s Gabriela Dabrowski and New Zealand’s Erin Routliffe opened their U.S. Open women’s doubles title defence Thursday with a 6-4, 6-2 win over Canada’s Leylah Fernandez and Yulia Putintseva of Kazakhstan.
Fernandez, from Laval, Que., and Putintseva broke serve on their first opportunity but their top-seeded opponents took the next four games en route to victory in 71 minutes.
Dabrowski, from Ottawa, and Routliffe will play American Catherine Harrison and Poland’s Alicja Rosolska in the second round.
Dabrowski won mixed doubles bronze at the Paris Olympics earlier this month with Montreal’s Felix Auger-Aliassime.
In men’s singles, Montreal qualifier Gabriel Diallo upset 24th-seeded Arthur Fils of France 7-5, 6-7 (3), 6-4, 6-4 later Thursday in second-round play.
After winning the second set, the 20-year-old Fils went up 3-2 in the third before Diallo won four consecutive games to take the set. The 143rd-ranked Diallo did the same in the fourth set to win the match, which lasted three hours 29 minutes.
Diallo, 22, is set to face 14th-seeded Tommy Paul of the United States in the third round.
Sinner, Swiatek advance
Jannik Sinner and Iga Swiatek flashed their No. 1 form on Thursday with powerful performances that moved them into the third round of the U.S. Open.
Sinner downed Alex Michelsen 6-4, 6-0, 6-2 in one hour 39 minutes.
Later, Swiatek raced by Japanese qualifier Ena Shibahara 6-0, 6-1, winning the first set in just 23 minutes and finishing off the match in 65. It took the 2022 U.S. Open champion longer than that to play the second set alone in her first-round match, when she needed a tiebreaker that she eventually closed out in 72 minutes.
“I just felt the rhythm was much better,” Swiatek said. “I was a bit tense in my last match, so today I just wanted to focus on the right things.”
Rybakina withdraws
Sinner beat Michelsen for the second time this month, having also won a second-round match in Cincinnati shortly before it was revealed he tested positive twice for an anabolic steroid in March.
Another Italian, Jasmine Paolini, played just three points before advancing when Karolina Pliskova appeared to injure her left foot. The No. 5-seeded Paolini, who reached the finals of the French Open and Wimbledon in her breakout season, advanced past the second round of the U.S. Open for the first time.
“Finally, we made third round!” she said with a laugh during an interview on the court.
Paolini will next play No. 30 seed Yulia Putintseva.
No. 4 seed Elena Rybakina, the 2022 Wimbledon champion, withdrew from the tournament with an undisclosed injury before her second-round match, sending French qualifier Jessika Ponchet to the weekend.
“Unfortunately, I have to withdraw from my match today due to my injuries,” Rybakina said in a statement. “I did not want to finish the last Grand Slam of the year this way, but I have to listen to my body, and I hope I can close out the remainder of the year strong.”
No. 7 seed Hurbert Hurkacz was eliminated in straight sets by Jordan Thompson, and No. 16 Sebastian Korda was knocked out by Tomas Machac.
Source Agencies
