After the historic storm registered the other night, calm and normality returned this Thursday to Open USA, where favorites like the australian Ashleigh Barty, first seed, and the Polish Iga Swiatek, seventh, they went to the third round.
The only problems Barty and other players faced were delays in trying to reach Flushing Meadows after the destructive effects left by the remnants of Hurricane Ida that hit the northeast of the country.
Barty, two-time Grand Slams champion, including last Wimbledon; Swiatek, the double winner of the Wimbledon title, the Czech Petra Kvitova (10), Tokyo Olympic gold medalist, Swiss Belinda Bencic (11), and other favorites like the Russian Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova (14), the Greek Maria Sakkari (17), the Americans Jessica Pegula (23) and estonia Anett Kontaveit (28) won all their matches in two straight sets.
The german Angelique KerberThe sixteenth seed, who was unable to play her second round match last night against Ukraine’s Anhelina Kalinina, won her place in the third round with a 6-3, 6-2 win.
Kerber’s rival will be American Sloane Stephens, in what will be a duel of former Open champions.
With sunshine and no cloud around, play in second-round matches on the outdoor courts was delayed to allow the US Tennis Association (USTA) time to clean up fallen tree limbs and other debris.
Once everything was ready, it was just a matter of transporting the players overcoming the delays caused by road closures and vehicles abandoned overnight; a trip from Manhattan to Queens, which normally takes between 30 and 45 minutes, took an hour and a half or more for some.
“We had to do a complete evaluation of the grounds and make sure the courts were available to play and most of all that the Hawk-Eye worked,” stated USTA spokesman Chris Widmaier.
“Trying to understand what was happening here was quite incredible, and I know there have been a lot of flash floods and a lot of people in trouble,” Barty commented after the win over 18-year-old Danish Clara Tauson, whom she beat 6- 1 and 7-5. “It was a pretty wild storm.”
Barty explained that although it took a little longer to get from Manhattan to Flushing Meadows, in the end everything was overcome.
The only seed that was eliminated was the Spanish Paula Badosa, twenty-fourth favorite, who was defeated 6-4, 6-4 against the 21-year-old Russian Varvara Gracheva.
