Serena survives, Thiem trounced in W&S Open

Serena Williams edged qualifier Arantxa Rus of the Netherlands 7-6 (6),
3-6, 7-6 (0) today in the second round of the Western & Southern Open
in Flushing Meadows, N.Y. 2018 photo by Mal Taam

The Western & Southern Open lost its top two women's seeds on Sunday and almost lost No. 3 today.

Serena Williams, ranked ninth, edged the Netherlands' Arantxa Rus, a qualifier ranked 72nd, 7-6 (6), 3-6, 7-6 (0) in the second round on a hot, humid day in Flushing Meadows, N.Y.

Falling on Sunday were top-seeded Karolina Pliskova and second-seeded Sofia Kenin.

On the men's side today, Filip Krajinovic, a 28-year-old Serb ranked No. 32, thrashed Austria's Dominic Thiem, seeded second and ranked third, 6-2, 6-1 in 61 minutes. 

Krajinovic, the runner-up to Ryan Harrison in the 2009 Chico (Calif.) Futures at 17, won 32 of 34 points (94%) on his serve and never faced a break point. 

Williams, who will turn 39 next month, saved a set point in the first-set tiebreaker on the fast hardcourts at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center. 

Rus, a 29-year-old left-hander, rallied from 2-5 in the third set to serve for the match at 6-5 in the 2-hour, 49-minute battle. 

Williams, who won the Western & Southern Open in Cincinnati in 2014 and 2015, had 14 aces and one double fault in her longest match since a first-round loss to Virginie Razzano in the 2012 French Open. Williams won 82 percent of the points on her first serve (47 of 57).

Williams, a part-time Silicon Valley resident, has struggled in her two tournaments since the WTA Tour resumed two weeks ago after a hiatus of almost five months because of the coronavirus pandemic. She fell to No. 116 Shelby Rogers 1-6, 6-4, 7-6 (5) in the quarterfinals in Lexington, Ky., her first loss to a player ranked in triple digits since the match against No. 111 Razzano.

Williams is scheduled to meet Greece's Maria Sakkari, seeded 13th and ranked 21st, for the first time on Tuesday not before 4 p.m. (ESPN). Sakkari, the runner-up in the inaugural Mubadala Silicon Valley Classic in San Jose, Calif., in 2018, beat Yulia Putintseva of Kazakhstan 6-4, 7-6 (9) after dominating 16-year-old U.S. phenom Coco Gauff 6-1, 6-3 on Saturday.

Also today, Marie Bouzkova upset sixth-seeded Petra Kvitova, who won Wimbledon in 2011 and 2014, 2-6, 7-5, 6-2 in an all-Czech encounter.

Qualifier CiCi Bellis, a 21-year-old San Francisco native who grew up down the peninsula in Atherton, fell to second-seeded Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus 7-6 (1), 4-6, 7-5 in 2:20 in their first meeting. 

Bellis, a 5-foot-7 (1.68-meter) right-hander, missed 20 months from March 2018 to November 2019 while undergoing three operations on her right wrist and one on her right elbow. The powerful Sabalenka reached last year's final in San Jose, losing to Zheng Saisai of China. 

Top-ranked Novak Djokovic, in his first official match since February, beat veteran Ricardas Berankis, a 5-foot-9 (1.75-meter) qualifier from Lithuania, 7-6 (2), 6-4. Djokovic had his neck treated after the first set.

Djokovic, the 2018 champion in Cincinnati, improved to 19-0 this year. Berankis reached the quarterfinals of the 2010 SAP Open in San Jose, Calif., as a qualifier, losing to eventual champion Fernando Verdasco of Spain.

Andy Murray, a 33-year-old wild card, topped fifth-seeded Alexander Zverev of Germany 6-3, 3-6, 7-5. The 6-foot-6 (1.98-meter) Zverev double-faulted three times while serving for the match at 5-4 in the third set at twice more at 5-6.

Murray, the Western & Southern champion in Cincinnati in 2008 and 2011, won the first of his three Grand Slam singles titles in the 2012 U.S. Open. The first of his 46 tour-level singles titles came at 18 in the 2006 SAP Open, and he repeated the following year. 

Third-seeded Daniil Medvedev began his title defense after receiving a first-round bye. Medvedev, last year's U.S. Open runner-up to Rafael Nadal in an epic at Flushing Meadows, defeated American qualifier Marcos Giron, the 2014 NCAA singles champion from UCLA, 6-4, 6-4.

Seventh-seeded Madison Keys, the women's defending champion, lost to Ons Jabeur of Tunisia 6-4, 6-1.  

Keys won the last Bank of the West Classic at Stanford in 2017 and reached the U.S. Open final one month later, losing to Fresno, Calif., product Sloane Stephens. Jabeur advanced to her first Grand Slam quarterfinal in the Australian Open in January. 

Two American giants advanced in the men's draw. 

Reilly Opelka, 6-foot-11 (2.11 meters), beat ninth-seeded Diego Schwartzman, 5-foot-7 (1.70 meters), of Argentina 6-3, 7-6 (4). 

Sixteenth-seeded John Isner, 6-foot-10 (2.08 meters), blasted 35 aces in a 4-6, 7-6 (3), 7-6 (5) victory over John Millman of Australia. Millman, who won Northern California Challengers in 2010 and 2015, shocked Roger Federer in the 2018 U.S. Open to reach his first Grand Slam quarterfinal.

Fritz becomes 2nd-fastest American to gain ATP final

Taylor Fritz, shown en route to the title in the Sacramento
Challenger last October, reached the Memphis Open final
in only his third ATP tournament. Photo by Paul Bauman

   It's too soon to anoint Taylor Fritz as the savior of U.S. men's tennis.
   But the 18-year-old prodigy is off to an incredible start.
   The wild card from Rancho Santa Fe in the San Diego area beat unseeded Ricardas Berankis of Lithuania 2-6, 6-3, 6-4 today to reach the final of the Memphis (Tenn.) Open.
   Fritz, playing only his third tour-level event, became the second-fastest American finalist in ATP history. John Isner reached the Washington, D.C., final in 2007, losing to countryman Andy Roddick, in his second ATP tournament.
   But at 6-foot-10 (2.08-meter), Isner is six inches (15.2 centimeters) taller than Fritz and was a 22-year-old Georgia graduate at the time. Fritz turned 18 last October.
   No American man has won a Grand Slam singles title since Roddick defeated Juan Carlos Ferrero in the 2003 U.S. Open final.
   Fritz became the youngest American to reach a tour-level final since 17-year-old Michael Chang won Wembley in 1989.
   "It's the best feeling in the world," Fritz told reporters. "To be here and think that it's the final is crazy. I'm really excited that I got to this level and I've proven that I belong here."
   Fans, starved for a U.S. star, began chanting Fritz's name in the third set.
   "It's amazing to have this support," said Fritz, who needed five match points to subdue the 25-year-old Berankis in 1 hour, 41 minutes. "I feel so loved here. I owe a lot to the crowd for pumping me up."
   Fritz will have the homecourt advantage again in Sunday's final against top-seeded Kei Nishikori (1 p.m. PST, Tennis Channel), although the 26-year-old Japanese star has built a substantial following in Memphis as the three-time defending champion.

   Nishikori, the 2014 U.S. Open runner-up to Marin Cilic, downed fourth-seeded Sam Querrey 3-6, 6-3, 6-3 to reach his 16th career ATP final. Querrey, a San Francisco native, won the Memphis title in 2010.
   Fritz will try to become the first teenager to win an ATP title since Cilic at New Haven in 2008 and the youngest player in the top 100. He is six months younger than No. 70 Alexander Zverev, an 18-year-old German who stands 6-foot-6 (1.98 meters). The top-ranked teenager in the world is Borna Coric, 19, of Croatia at No. 38.

   Northern California fans are familiar with Fritz, who won the $100,000 Sacramento and $50,000 Fairfield Challengers back to back last October at 17. Ranked No. 694 before Sacramento, Fritz will rise to No. 103 with a loss to the seventh-ranked Nishikori and No. 82 with a win.

Kei Nishikori, playing at Indian Wells
last year, seeks his fourth straight Mem-
phis Open title. Photo by Paul Bauman

   Fritz used his tennis smarts and power to turn around today's match after Berankis, 5-foot-9 (1.75 meters), dominated the first set. Fritz finished with 17 aces.
   "I honestly felt he was unbeatable in the first set," said Fritz, whose parents (Guy Fritz and former top-10 player Kathy May) and uncle (Harry Fritz) all played professionally. "He was making me look awful. I didn't think there was much I could do. I tried to changed things up in my game. He was returning my serves and putting my on defense.
   "In the second set, I told myself that the way I was serving wasn't going to cut it. I needed to crank it up a lot. I started hitting my serves 5 to 10 miles per hour faster. That was the biggest difference. Once I was holding my serve, it put pressure on him. That's what allowed me to play my game more and allowed me to win."
   Berankis was attempting to reach his second ATP final. He reached the title match in Los Angeles in 2012 as a qualifier, losing to Querrey 6-0, 6-2.
   "I was very close (against Fritz)," said Berankis, a quarterfinalist in the now-defunct SAP Open in San Jose in 2012. "I played very well in the first set. Everything was working. In the second set, I started to play a little more careful, and Taylor took his chances and was all over me. ... You always have to keep up the plan and continue the same way throughout the match."
   Nishikori, also diminutive at 5-foot-10 (1.78 meters), can tie Connors' record of four Memphis titles (1978-79 and 1983-84).     
   "It will be (a) really big moment for me, to win four years in a row," Nishikori said. "But I try not to think about tomorrow. I (will) try to play good tennis again tomorrow. Taylor is another tough opponent. We never play before, and he's upcoming."
   Wild cards Fritz and Ryan Harrison of Austin, Texas, lost to fourth-seeded Steve Johnson of Redondo Beach in the Los Angeles area and Querrey 6-1, 6-2 in the doubles semifinals.
   Johnson and Querrey will play top seeds and defending champions Mariusz Fyrstenberg of Poland and Santiago Gonzalez of Mexico in the final. Fyrstenberg and Gonzalez outlasted unseeded Oliver Marach of Austria and Fabrice Martin of France 6-7 (7), 7-5 [15-13].
   Querrey won the Memphis doubles title in 2010 with countryman John Isner.