VENUS WILLIAMS BOWS OUT OF US OPEN AS STREAMLINED ALCARAZ SAILS THROUGH

USA's Venus Williams waves at supporters after losing against Czech Republic's Karolina Muchova at the end of their women's singles first round tennis match on day two of the US Open tennis tournament at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in New York City

Image: Kena Betancur / AFP

Venus Williams battled bravely before bowing out of the US Open on her return to Grand Slam tennis on Monday as Spanish ace Carlos Alcaraz stormed into the second round with a dominant opening win.

The second full day of action in New York saw all eyes turn to the Arthur Ashe Stadium's night session, where the 45-year-old Williams lost in three sets to 11th seed Karolina Muchova.

Williams only returned to competitive tennis in July following a 16-month absence from the sport and had been granted a wild card into the main draw at Flushing Meadows.

But hopes of a fairytale run -- 28 years after her debut in the tournament -- ended in a 6-3, 2-6, 6-1 loss to Muchova, who was not even born when Williams turned professional in 1994.

"I didn't win today but I'm very proud of the way I played," Williams, the US Open champion in 2000 and 2001, said.

"I don't think I've ever had a crowd on my side like that. I knew people around the world and around the United States were really rooting for me, and that felt great."

With the American exiting, 2022 men's champion Alcaraz took centre-stage in the late game in his first round tie against unseeded American Reilly Opelka.

The Spaniard arrived for the game sporting a striking new hairstyle -- a severe crew cut -- and he duly chopped down the 6ft 11in Opelka with a blistering 6-4, 7-5, 6-4 victory in 2hr 5min.

"Today was a really difficult one," Alcaraz said. "Reilly is a great, tough player. I couldn't get the rhythm that I wanted to get but I'm just really happy with what I did today. I did a great performance today."

Alcaraz is chasing a second US Open title following his maiden Grand Slam victory at the tournament three years ago.

Australian Open winner Madison Keys became the highest-ranked player to exit so far, the sixth seed losing to Mexico's Renata Zarazua 6-7 (10/12), 7-6 (7/3), 7-5.

"Today was the first time in a while where my nerves really got the better of me and it kind of became a little bit paralyzing," home hope Keys said.

"I was just slow, I wasn't seeing things the way that I wanted to, which I feel like resulted in a lot of bad decisions and lazy footwork."

Kvitova farewell

Czech Republic's Barbora Krejcikova bundled out rising Canadian star Victoria Mboko, defeating the teenager 6-3, 6-2.

Belgian 19th seed Elise Mertens ousted wild card Alyssa Ahn 6-1, 6-0 while Ukrainian 30th seed Dayana Yastremska exited in a 6-7 (5/7), 7-6 (7/5), 6-4 loss to Russia's Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova.

Two-time Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova brought the curtain down on her career after a 6-1, 6-0 defeat to France's Diane Parry.

The 35-year-old Czech had already announced her intention to retire after the US Open, but was nonetheless overcome with emotion as she said farewell to the sport, breaking down in tears as she addressed fans afterwards.

"I hoped I would put on a better show today," Kvitova said. "It was tough to know it could be my last match, and emotionally it was very tough as well."

Qualifier Coleman Wong became the first man from Hong Kong to record a victory in a Grand Slam singles event in the Open era with a 6-4, 7-5, 7-6 (7/4) defeat of US player Aleksandar Kovacevic.

It was the latest in a series of breakthrough results by young Asian players at this year's US Open.

Alexandra Eala of the Philippines -- who trains with Wong at Rafael Nadal's academy in Spain -- and Indonesia's Janice Tjen both won their first-round matches in the main draw.

British fifth seed Jack Draper needed four sets to get past Argentina's Federico Gomez, 6-4, 7-5, 6-7 (7/9), 6-2.

Other seeds to advance included Norway's Casper Ruud, the 12th seed, who downed Austria's Sebastian Ofner 6-1, 6-2, 7-6 (7/5).

US 17th seed Frances Tiafoe beat Japan's Yoshihito Nishioka 6-3, 7-6 (8/6), 6-3.

- AFP

IGA SWIATEK SAVES MATCH POINT, BEATS NAOMI OSAKA AT FRENCH OPEN

Iga Swiatek celebrates after defeating Naomi Osaka in a match during which she saved a match point and won the last five games in the third set. Clive Brunskill/Getty Images

 PARIS -- Iga Swiatek played like the current No. 1 and the two-time defending champion at the French Open. No surprise there. That Naomi Osaka looked like the former No. 1 that she is -- and on clay, no less -- amounted to an announcement that she is still quite capable of elite tennis.

Surging down the stretch as Osaka faded, Swiatek saved a match point and grabbed the last five games to sneak her way to a 7-6 (1), 1-6, 7-5 victory in the second round of the French Open on Wednesday night in a thrill-a-minute contest befitting two women who both own four Grand Slam titles.

"For sure, this match was really intense. Much more intense for the second round than I ever expected. For sure, I'll be more ready next time," Swiatek said. "Naomi played amazing tennis. ... I'm happy that she's back and she's playing well."

For Swiatek, this extended her Roland Garros winning streak to 16 matches as she pursues a third consecutive trophy at the clay-court major. For Osaka, who cried when she left the court after letting a 5-2 lead in the concluding set slip away, this amounted to a return to her big-hitting best.

"I cried when I got off the court, but then, you know, for me, I kind of realize I was watching Iga, like, win this tournament last year, and I was pregnant. It was just my dream to be able to play her," Osaka said.

"When I kind of think of it like that, I think I'm doing pretty well. And I'm also just trying not to be too hard on myself. I feel like I played her on her better surface. I'm a hard-court kid, so I would love to play her on my surface and see what happens."

They went back-and-forth for nearly three hours as rain loudly pelted the outside of the closed roof at Court Philippe Chatrier -- showers forced the postponements of 23 singles matches until Thursday -- and a riveted, if hardly full, crowd alternated their support between the two players. Sometimes, spectators called out before a point was done, prompting admonishment from chair umpire Aurélie Tourte during the match. And from Swiatek afterward.

"Sometimes, under a lot of pressure, when you scream something during the rally or right before the return, it's really, really hard to be focused," Swiatek said. "The stakes are big and there is a lot of money here to win. So losing a few points may change a lot. So please, guys, if you can support us between the rallies but not during, that would be really, really amazing."

Osaka served for the victory at 5-3 in the final set, and was a point away from winning, but she put a backhand into the net. Soon, when Osaka missed another backhand, this one long, Swiatek finally converted a break point on her 10th chance of that set, and they played on.

Maybe the lack of high-level matches caught up to Osaka, because her mistakes continued to mount, including a double fault that put Swiatek in control 6-5. Swiatek, who has led the WTA rankings for nearly every week since April 2022, then held serve one last time.

Still, this was, without a doubt, Osaka's top performance since she returned to the tour in January after 15 months away while becoming a mother. (Her daughter, who is 10 months old now, accompanied Osaka to Paris and recently started walking.)

Indeed, it's been a few years since Osaka played this capably and confidently, hammering big serves at up to 122 mph and imposing groundstrokes. Her quick-strike capabilities were on full display: Osaka won 82 of the 139 points (59%) that lasted four strokes or fewer, and she finished with a 54-37 advantage in total winners.

All of those familiar mannerisms were back, too. She turned her back to Swiatek to reset between points, hopped in place, tugged at her pink visor's brim and slapped her palm on her thigh. Osaka celebrated points by shaking a clenched fist and shouting "Come on!"

She grabbed nine of 10 games to dominate the second set and led 3-0 in the third. Then 4-1. Then 5-2.

As one ball or another would fly past Swiatek, zipped near a corner or right at a line, she turned toward her guest box and shot a look of confusion or concern in the direction of her coach and her sports psychologist.

"I felt for most of the match that I wasn't really [in the] here and now," Swiatek said. "My mind was, like, playing around sometimes."

She's not used to this sort of one-way traffic coming head-on in her direction. Normally, it's Swiatek who is delivering lopsided sets at a foe's expense, especially on clay. She now has won her past 14 matches this month, with titles on the surface at Madrid and Rome -- a clay double no woman had done since Serena Williams in 2013.

But this marked a sudden return to the Osaka everyone came to expect, match in and match out, back when she was at the height of her powers, climbing atop the rankings and gathering two trophies apiece at the U.S. Open and Australian Open from late 2018 to early 2021.

It was in May 2021 that Osaka withdrew from the French Open before her second-round match, explaining that she experiences "huge waves of anxiety" before speaking to the media and revealing she had dealt with depression. She took time away from the tour for a mental health break, then opted for another hiatus after her title defense at the U.S. Open a few months later ended with a third-round loss.

She helped usher in a change in the way athletes, sports fans and society at large understood the importance of mental health -- and prompted those in charge of various sports, including tennis, to take the issue seriously and try to accommodate and protect them better.

Osaka entered with an 0-4 record on the red stuff against opponents ranked in the top 10 and never has been past the third round at Roland Garros. This also would have been her first win anywhere against a top-10 opponent since January 2020.

Instead, though, it is Swiatek who moves on and continues her bid to become the first woman with three championships in a row in Paris since Justine Henin in 2007-09.

Coco Gauff, meanwhile, rolled past Tamara Zidansek 6-3, 6-4 in the second round Wednesday, harnessing her mighty forehand in front of a crowd squarely on her side.

The US Open winner sent over nearly two dozen winners and overcame issues with her serve, including six double faults, to set up a meeting with the winner of a match between Wang Yafan and Dayana Yastremska.

Other winners on the women's side Wednesday included Sofia Kenin, the champion at the Australian Open in 2020 and runner-up at the French Open later that year, and Ons Jabeur.

Kenin arrived at the French Open with just a 4-13 record this season and now is into the third round at Roland Garros after eliminating 21st-seeded Caroline Garcia of France 6-3, 6-3.

Jabeur advanced to the third round by defeating Camila Osorio 6-3, 1-6, 6-3.

ESPN's D'Arcy Maine, The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

- ESPN News Services

SUPERB SABALENKA BEATS GAUFF TO REACH AUSTRALIAN OPEN FINAL

 

Aryna Sabalenka took a big step towards retaining her Australian Open crown by beating American fourth seed Coco Gauff 7-6(2) 6-4 in a thriller on Thursday to reach the final where she will meet Australian Open or qualifier Dayana Yastremska.

In a rematch of their U.S. Open final in September, the two reigning hardcourt Grand Slam champions made contrasting starts as Belarusian Sabalenka fired an ace and revved up her forehand to hold before pouncing on two double faults by Gauff to break.

But what followed was an intense contest between two players hoping to forge ahead and win their second Grand Slam title, and it was Sabalenka who held firm to become the first player since Serena Williams in 2016 and 2017 to make back-to-back Melbourne finals.