Sharapova survives amidst tumbling top seeds

Halep, Venus, Kerber become third-round casualties.

NEW YORK:

World number two Simona Halep and two-time champion Venus Williams tumbled out of the US Open on Friday, but Maria Sharapova bucked the upset trend that rocked the women’s draw.

Sharapova found herself in a power struggle, but emerged with a 6-2, 6-4 victory over German 26th seed Sabine Lisicki.

“It was a really tough opponent I had today [Friday], a very aggressive, big server,” said Sharapova. “I just tried to concentrate on my return, I wasn’t serving as well as I wanted to.”

Croatian Mirjana Lucic-Baroni shocked second-seeded Halep, the French Open runner-up, 7-6 (8/6), 6-2.

“It’s incredible, amazing, I feel goofy,” said Lucic-Baroni.

The reward for the 121st-ranked Lucic-Baroni is a fourth-round meeting with 13th-seeded Italian Sara Errani, who thwarted Venus 6-0, 0-6, 7-6 (7/5).

“I know that was a really tough match, even if I won the first set 6-0 she’s an amazing player,” said Errani of Venus.

Swiss 17-year-old Belinda Bencic toppled sixth-seeded German Angelique Kerber 6-1, 7-5. She earned a meeting with former world number one Jelena Jankovic, who bagged a 6-1, 6-0 winner over Sweden’s Johanna Larsson.

The last Grand Slam of the year has now lost four of its top 10 women’s seeds, after the second-round departures of Agnieszka Radwanska and Ana Ivanovic.

Meanwhile, China’s Peng Shuai dispatched Roberta Vinci 6-4, 6-3 to set up a meeting with 14th-seeded Czech Lucie Safarova, who won 6-3, 6-7 (5/7), 6-4 over France’s Alize Cornet.

Federer tames big-serving Groth

Second-seeded Roger Federer found a way past the booming serve of Sam Groth in a 6-4, 6-4, 6-4 second-round victory over the 104th-ranked Australian.

“My arm’s still vibrating,” said Federer, after coping with Groth’s 140-plus mph serves.

Fourth-seeded David Ferrer reached the third round without lifting his racquet when unpredictable Aussie Bernard Tomic withdrew with a hip injury.

Sixth-seeded Czech Tomas Berdych needed five sets but got the job done against Slovakian Martin Klizan 6-3, 4-6, 6-2, 3-6, 6-3 and Wimbledon semi-finalist Grigor Dimitrov of Bulgaria continued his best-ever US Open with a 6-1, 6-2, 6-2 victory over Israeli Dudi Sela.

Austrian Dominic Thiem rallied from two sets down to defeat 11th-seeded Latvian Ernests Gulbis 4-6, 3-6, 6-4, 6-3, 6-3, but 12th-seeded Frenchman Richard Gasquet, Croatia’s 14th-seeded Marin Cilic, 18th seed Kevin Anderson of South Africa, 19th seed Feliciano Lopez and 20th seed Gael Monfils all advanced.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 31^st, 2014.

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