2nd and 3rd seeds out of U.S. Open

What a performance from @ElinaSvitolina! She beats Madison Keys in straight sets to advance into the @usopen quarters pic.twitter.com/pRRIVPYYiM

— Jimmie48 Photography (@JJlovesTennis) September 2, 2019

 

Ash Barty, seeded number 2 at the U.S. Open, was knocked out of the event today by Wang Qiang, whose game has steadily gotten better and better this year, allowing the 18h seeded Chinese player's game to reach a crescendo in Flushing Meadows. Barty was a mass of errors, while Wang was efficient and mentally tough, defeating Barty 6-2, 6-4.

Karolina Pliskova, the 3rd seed, hasn't looked quite right throughout this tournament (and even in Cincinnati). She got off to a slow start against 16th seed Jo Konta, who had a healthy lead throughout most of the first set. Somehow, Pliskova caught up, the set went to a tiebreak, and then--almost out of nowhere--the Czech star stormed through, allowing her opponent only one point. It was as if she did it with mirrors.

That must have been discouraging for the Brit, but Konta won the second set 6-3, and went on to win the third 7-5.

8th seed Serena Williams, serving up a storm, defeated Petra Martic 6-3, 6-4. It's a nice trend, however, to see Martic making these second week appearances in majors.

Finally, speedy Elina Svitolina turned into big-serving speedy Elina Svitolina tonight, and defeated Madison Keys 7-5, 6-4. It was a masterful performance from the 5th seed, who has long needed a good serve to go with the rest of her game. Tonight, a first serve win percentage of 92 spoke volumes. Of course, we have seen WTA players suddenly serve really well and then not replicate that skill in the next match. Here's hoping that Svitolina has actually developed a reliable good serve.

In doubles, the 7th-seeded Chan sisters were upset by Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova and Anastasija Sevastova. The big news in doubles, however, was that Coco Gauff and Caty McNally upset 9th seeds Nicole Melichar and Kveta Peschke.