Western and Southern Open: Top-2 seeds Karolina Pliskova, Sofia Kenin lose openers

Sunday’s evening session at the Western and Southern Open saw a carnage with the top two seeds – Karolina Pliskova and Sofia Kenin – crashing out in their opening rounds.

Russian Veronika Kudermetova upset the top-seeded Czech in straight sets 7-5, 6-4 in one hour and 45 minutes. This win over the world no. 3 marks the biggest result of Kudermetova’s career so far. After the match, she said, “It was nice feeling, and I tried to just fight and enjoy it. I think right now I play really well. I have yesterday the longest match, today a long match. For me it's a good opportunity to play, like, right now with the good players. I know she's a really good player. I needed to just keep working every point. I had a good chance because I played yesterday. She played just [her] first match,” she said. “For me, it's better to play like long matches right now, because right now if you play long matches, you start to feel it again in your feeling on the court.”

Kudermetova awaits the winner of the Kristina Mladenovic-Elise Mertens clash in the round-of-16.

The second-biggest upset of the day was scripted by France’s Alize Cornet over world no. 2 and 2020 Australian Open champion Kenin in their second-round meeting. Cornet won 6-1, 7-6(7) in an hour and 43 minutes. Cornet built up a substantial 6-1, 5-2 lead over the American and even had two match points to her name but Kenin made a resilient stab to turn the match around but Cornet did not cede much ground thereafter.

“I'm a fighter. I'm always fighting, so that's nothing new, but tonight was tough because I was 6-1, 5-2 up with two match points. Somehow, I let it go a little bit, and I got really tight, so I never thought I could win the set the way I did,” Cornet said, analysing the match afterward.

Cornet will play either Victoria Azarenka or Caroline Garcia in the pre-quarter-finals.

Round-of-64 Results' Summary at Western and Southern Open

In the other first-round matches, Lexington Open champion, Swiss Jil Teichmann won her opener against the US’ Danielle Collins 6-3, 6-3. Teichmann who made her way into the main draw here as a qualifier will take on 12th seed Anett Kontaveit in the second round.

Marie Bouzkova of the Czech Republic defeated Russian qualifier Anna Kalinskaya 6-1, 7-5. Kazakh Yulia Putintseva defeated China’s Shuai Zhang 6-4, 6-3. Tunisian Ons Jabeur needed three sets to win against Canadian qualifier Leylah Fernandez 0-6, 6-4, 6-3.

Christina McHale and Kristen Flipkens rounded off the entirety of first-round winners at the Western and Southern Open. Qualifier McHale defeated Romanian teen Iga Swiatek 6-2, 6-4 while the Belgian, who also qualified into the main draw, defeated Czech Katerina Siniakova 6-3, 6-3.

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