It’s been an exciting day at the US Open. Some seeds got flushed away, while others were pushed to the limits before finding themselves in the fourth round of the last Grand Slam of the season.
The first finished match was played on Louis Armstrong stadium between seed No.21 Simona Halep and seed No.14 Maria Kirilenko. The match was over in just 51 minutes and Kirilenko was destroyed 6-1 6-0. The Russian asked for a medical timeout in the second set, at 5-0 down, but shortly after the match continued Romanian Halep breezed through. This has been the season of Halep’s career, as she has won four titles this year and has made her best performance at the US Open. She will meet Italian Flavia Pennetta in the fourth round. They have played twice so far and Pennetta leads their head-to-head record 2-0.
The 83rd-ranked Flavia Pennetta, unseeded, stormed through her match against 27th-seeded Russian Svetlana Kuznetsova in an hour and 23 minutes, 7-5 6-1. The Italian finally managed to beat Kuznetsova for the first time in their six career meetings.
There was one more surprise in store for us, on Court 17, where unseeded Alison Riske stunned seventh seed Petra Kvitova. It was an easy 6-3 6-0 victory for the American player and her best performance at the US Open, which she had played just once before, in 2011, and lost in the first round to compatriot Lauren Davis. Kvitova is the highest-seeded casualty of the day so far.
Meanwhile on Arthur Ashe stadium, Ana Ivanovic tried to resist the challenge of Christina McHale. In the first set it seemed like McHale was in control, but at the start of the second set the tide changed a little. They battled for every game until the end. The match lasted for two hours and 23 minutes and Ivanovic edged it 4-6 7-5 6-4. In the fourth round the Serb will play second seed Victoria Azarenka, who worked very hard to overcome Alize Cornet 6-7(2) 6-3 6-2. (photo: © Neal Trousdale)
