WASHINGTON — Simona Halep won her opening match at the Citi Open hours before another former No. 1-ranked women´s player returned to singles action for the first time in 2022.
Three-time Grand Slam champion Andy Murray of Britain crashed out in the opening round.
“I had a good run in Wimbledon, so it´s always tough to start,” Halep said of changing surfaces after the grass-court season according to AP. “But I´m really happy I won the match and I can play another match here.”
Williams has not played a WTA singles match since losing to Su-Wei Hseih 6-2, 6-3 in Chicago on Aug. 23. She and partner Coco Gauff lost their doubles debut earlier this year at the French Open.
On the men´s side, Murray fell to 115th-ranked Ymer 7-6 (10/8), 4-6, 6-1 after two hours and 50 minutes at the US Open tuneup tournament.
“I’m excited,” said Ymer, who saved four set points in the first set. “A lot left to do but it’s a very good start of the American swing.” World number 50 Murray, the 2012 and 2016 Olympic champion, is trying to earn a seeding at the US Open, which he won a decade ago.
“It’s still possible,” the 35-year-old Scotsman said. “I would just need to have a good run in Canada or Cincinnati really. It’s pretty straightforward if I was to make a quarterfinal or a semifinal, which right now — after a loss like that — doesn’t seem realistic.
Elsewhere, Jannik Sinner defeated Spanish teenager Carlos Alcaraz for the second time in four weeks to take the Spaniard’s Umag clay-court title.
World number 10 Sinner came from a first set deficit to beat the fifth-ranked Alcaraz 6-7 (5/7), 6-1, 6-1 in the final.
Sinner, who now has six career titles but a first on clay, had also defeated the 19-year-old in the fourth round at Wimbledon earlier this month.
“I am obviously very happy,” said Sinner who saved all nine break points he faced.
“I have had a tough year until now, I had some unfortunate moments, but we worked every time to play better, to be a better player, to be a better person,” he added according to AFP.
“So, I’m very happy to be finally lifting a trophy this year, but I know that I still have a lot of things to improve. It’s all about the process.”
Alcaraz had been seeking his fifth title of 2022 but instead was defeated in a final for the second successive week after losing to another Italian, Lorenzo Musetti in Hamburg.
Sinner has been one of the most consistent players on Tour this season and had reached six tour-level quarter-finals in 2022 prior to the clay-court ATP 250 event this week in Umag. The second seed had to be at his resilient best against Alcaraz, especially after the Spaniard had clinched a tight opening set in a tie-break. Yet the Italian began to dictate the baseline exchanges and saved nine from nine break points to complete a two-hour, 26-minute victory.
The win was Sinner’s second against Alcaraz in four weeks, after the Italian was a four-set winner in the pair’s fourth-round clash at Wimbledon.
A vital hold of serve in the second game of the second set was crucial to Sinner’s victory. The Italian fended off six break points to frustrate Alcaraz, going on to break the Spaniard’s serve immediately in the next game.
“That was a crucial point [of the match],” said Sinner. “I knew I had to stay there. He made some unforced errors, and I was very happy that I won this game. Then I returned well and raised my level a little bit, and I think I found a solution then.”
The match was the third tour-level meeting in a burgeoning rivalry between two of the ATP Tour’s brightest young stars, and the opening set lived up to the billing as both players produced some clean hitting and electric movement along the baseline.
It was Alcaraz who made his move in the tie-break, which he led 5/1 before converting his third set point after a stunning defensive forehand forced Sinner to net a tricky half-volley.
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