NEW YORK — World number one Iga Swiatek got her US Open title defense off to a dominant start, flattening unseeded Swede Rebecca Peterson 6-0 6-1. Greek eighth seed Maria Sakkari crashed out of the first round following a 6-4 6-4 defeat at the hands of Spaniard Rebeka Masarova.
The four-time Grand Slam champion fired off 20 winners and four aces to set up a second-round meeting with Australian Daria Saville.
Swiatek said that her tank was “pretty empty” after losing in the Montreal and Cincinnati semi-finals earlier this month but showed no lack of vigor as she opened her US Open campaign with an ace and blazed through the first set.
The Polish player showed only brief signs of vulnerability early in the second set, as she began to accrue more unforced errors and had to claw her way back from triple break point in the first game.
But she reminded the crowd at Flushing Meadows why she has been the world number one since April 2022 as she whacked across an unreturnable backhand shot to break Peterson to love in the fourth game, amid a 10-point winning streak.
Peterson, who only produced two winners across the match, never regained her composure and Swiatek pumped her first after closing out the match with a scorching backhand down the line.
“I really wanted to play solid and start (the) tournament with everything that I focused on (in practice),” she said in on-court remarks.
“I just feel happy that with all the pressure and expectations I can just have fun on court.”
World number 71 Masarova converted all three break point opportunities she had during the 87-minute encounter to secure her first career win over a top-10 player.
Sakkari had control as she consolidated an early break for a 4-1 lead but Masarova stormed back and won the next five games to wrap up the opening set.
In the second set, Masarova again consolidated a break for a 5-3 cushion and then, after Sakkari held serve to stay alive, closed out the encounter on her second match point with a backhand winner that dropped just inside the corner.
With the loss, Sakkari became the first seeded casualty of the US Open.
For Sakkari, the defeat marked the final blow in a disappointing Grand Slam year for her as she followed a third-round appearance at the Australian Open with first-round exits at the French Open, Wimbledon and now the US Open.
Elsewhere, Spaniard Roberto Carballes Baena, ranked 63rd, downed Rune 6-3, 4-6, 6-3, 6-2, for his first-ever victory over a top-10 player. The 20-year-old Dane reached the quarter-finals of the French Open and Wimbledon to break into the top five.
On the women’s side, No. 1-ranked defending champion Iga Swiatek needed just 58 minutes to beat Swede Rebecca Peterson 6-0, 6-1.
Tenth-seeded American Frances Tiafoe, a 25-year-old from Maryland who reached the semifinal at last year´s US Open, had little trouble in a 6-2, 7-5, 6-1, victory over wild-card countryman Learner Tien.
Dominic Thiem, the 2020 champion who is unseeded this year, downed 25th-seeded Alexander Bublik of Kazakhstan 6-3, 6-2, 6-4.
Thiem, an Austrian who had lost his previous seven Grand Slam matches dating to the 2021 Australian Open, next faces American Ben Shelton, who defeated Argentine Pedro Cachin in four sets.
Gauff, a 19-year-old from Florida, faces Laura Siegemund of Germany, who won the women’s doubles title in New York three years ago. Gauff was the runner-up at the French Open in singles – losing to Swiatek – and doubles in 2022.
Wrapping things up in the main stadium will be 23-time Grand Slam champion Djokovic against Alexandre Muller of France, who is making his US Open debut.
It marks a return to the event for Djokovic, who missed it last year because he couldn’t travel to the United States as a foreigner who is not vaccinated against COVID-19. That rule has been dropped.
