NEW YORK — Paris Olympics champion Zheng Qinwen defeated Amanda Anisimova 4-6, 6-4, 6-2 to reach the second round of the US Open as Coco Gauff launched her title defence with a 6-2, 6-0 victory Varvara Gracheva.
Former champion Dominic Thiem’s was beaten 6-4 6-2 6-2 in the first round by American Ben Shelton.
“Every ball (from Anisimova) went inside in the beginning and I couldn’t do anything,” Zheng said according to AFP. “More as the match goes I started to find my rhythm on hard court. Little by little I started to get into the rhythm.”
“I’m happy what I did in the past, but right now I just want to focus on what I do here,” said Zheng, who could face Sabalenka again in the quarter-finals.
Zheng, who reached her first major quarter-final at the 2023 US Open, made a slow start, quickly falling behind 5-1, wtatennis.com reported.
But once she found her groove on serve in the second set, she was able to take control and roll through the decider, closing out the match with an ace and a service winner.
The Olympic gold medallist has now won 13 of her 14 matches since Wimbledon. Twelve of those comprised a winning streak on clay that included the Palermo and Paris Olympic Games titles, but Zheng had only won one hard-court match since in reaching the Cincinnati third round.
Following her loss to Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova there, she returned to China for a brief home visit.
By contrast, Anisimova has been one of the form players on the North American hard courts. Ranked outside the Top 100 four weeks ago — hence needing a wild card this week — her run in Toronto to her first WTA 1000 final boosted her back to her current No.50.
In Zheng’s on-court interview afterwards, she admitted that she “couldn’t do anything” in the first set. Anisimova was painting the lines with winners, particularly off her backhand wing, while Zheng landed only 43 per cent of her first serves.
Despite being comprehensively outhit, Zheng did manage to find something to build on by the end of the set.
She managed to save eight out of 11 break points, including the first three set points as she cut Anisimova’s lead from 5-1 to 5-4. During this stretch, the American also showed some vulnerability with three double faults across two service games.
This wasn’t enough to save the set — Anisimova broke again, converting her fourth set point with a breathtaking forehand winner down the line — but Zheng had a foothold in the match.
Austrian Thiem has struggled to reproduce the form that carried him to the 2020 Flushing Meadows title and announced he would retire from the sport this season after being troubled by a wrist injury in recent years.
Shelton leaned on his powerful forehand and sent over eight aces to open the action on Arthur Ashe Stadium, as the 21-year-old hopes to recapture the magic of his charmed run to the semi-finals 12 months ago.
Despite struggling with his serve, Thiem showed he had some fight left in him as he fended off two break points in the 10th game but a relentless Shelton forced him into an error to break him on the third attempt to take the opening set.
The American extinguished Thiem’s lone break point opportunity in the opening game of the second set and the Austrian handed Shelton a break in the second game with a double fault and an unforced error.
Shelton showed he could be a threat over the next two weeks as he broke Thiem again to close out the second set. He ran away with the match in the third set, pummeling 34 winners in a confident performance.
Fourth seed Alexander Zverev out-duelled fellow German Maximilian Marterer 6-2 6-7(5) 6-3 6-2 in the first round.
Zverev flexed his dominant serve, blasting 21 aces and winning 79 per cent of his first serve points on the Grandstand.
Unseeded Marterer, the “lucky loser” that entered the draw after Emil Ruusuvuori withdrew last week, captured a close second set but was ultimately overpowered by the world No. 4.
Zverev looked sharp in the first set, breaking his opponent’s serve in the opening game before Marterer battled back to claim a back-and-forth second set in a tiebreak.
The big-serving Zverev looked frustrated at times, tossing his racket at the start of the third set after committing one of 44 unforced errors.
