Kei Nishikori and Ana Ivanovic became the first big casualties of this year’s US Open after suffering defeats on the opening day of the fourth grand slam, last night.
Japan’s Nishikori, the men’s fourth seed and last year’s runner-up, fell at the first hurdle, losing 6-4 3-6 4-6 7-6 (6) 6-4 to Frenchman Benoit Paire.
The 26-year-old Paire, having collected his maiden ATP Tour title in July in Bastad, brought his good from to Flushing Meadows grinding out a three hour 14 minute victory to get the season’s final grand slam off to a shocking start.
Nishikori, who turned in a marathon effort last year recording five set wins over Milos Raonic and Stan Wawrinka and a four set victory over world number one Novak Djokovic in the semi-finals, had looked ready to survive the opening test coming back from a wobbly opening set.
But after the 41st ranked Paire won the tiebreak he carried the momentum into the fifth set and recorded the decisive break to go up 3-2 before finishing off Nishikori with a thundering ace.
Ivanovic, the Serbian seventh seed, fell 6-3 3-6 6-3 to Dominika Cibulkova.
The 50th-ranked Cibulkova of Slovakia seized the advantage with a service break in the fourth game of third set for a 3-1 lead and consolidated it with a backhand drop shot to make it 4-1 against the former French Open champion.
A backhand long from Ivanovic, who had her left foot taped midway through the final set, ended the nearly two-hour contest.
“Today I know that my game was there on the court,” said the 26-year-old Cibulkova. “I just had to stay tough and know I had to do it, she doesn’t give away shots.”
Cibulkova will next face Jessica Pegula, a 7-5 6-3 winner over Alison Van Uytvanck.
For Ivanovic, the 2008 French Open champion, the result continued an up-and-down season. The 27-year-old Serb, who reached the semi-finals at Roland Garros this year, was coming off back-to-back quarter-finals at US Open tune-up events in Toronto and Cincinnati.
Other early matches on the women’s side went according to script as 13th-seeded Russian Ekaterina Makarova dismissed Brazil’s Teliana Pereira 6-3 6-3, and 15th seed Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland crushed Czech Katerina Siniakova 6-2 6-3.