Defending champ Sam Stosur hurdles US Open first-round rival

New York, NY, United States (4E Sports) – Defending champion Samantha Stosur of Australia started her title defense on a brilliant note, crushing Petra Martic of Croatia, 6-1, 6-1, Monday in the opening round of the US Open at Arthur Ashe Stadium.

The seventh-seed Stosur won 19 straight points in the first set and was five points away from a golden set before she hit a double fault with the score at 4-0, 40-0.

“It pops into your head and you think, ‘Oh, that would be cool,’” Stosur said when asked if she was aware of being five points from achieving a golden set. “I knew that I hadn’t missed a point and the match had been going pretty quick and obviously in my favor. Then I hit the double fault.”

Martin avoided a shutout in the first set after holding serve but continued to struggle with her strokes and committed a backhand error to wrap up the opening set.

In the second set, Stosur jumped all over Martic’s short second serves and put the Croatian on the defensive during the long baseline rallies. Stosur fired 10 aces and won 86 percent of the points when she got her first serve in to finish the match in 51 minutes.

Stosur will face the winner of the Edina Gallovits-Hall-Stefanie Voegele match in the second round.

Third seed Maria Sharapova of Russia joined Stosur in the second round after beating Melinda Czink, 6-2, 6-2, in just 67 minutes while Marion Bartoli defeated American Jamie Hampton, 6-3, 7-6(5) to win her 18th straight first-round match at a major tournament.

In other women’s matches, ninth-seed Li Na beat Britain’s Heather Watson 6-2, 6-3, Russian 19th seed Nadia Petrova defeated Jarmila Gajdosova of Australia, 6-3, 7-6 (3) while 16th-seeded Sabine Lisicki and 18th-seeded Julia Goerges lost to Sorana Cirstea of Romania and Kristyna Pliskova of the Czech Republic, respectively.

In the men’s division, third seed and London Olympics gold medalist Andy Murray defeated Russian Alex Bogomolov, 6-2, 6-4, 6-1, after a two-hour rain delay.

Murray goes on to face Croatian Ivan Dodig, who wasted no time in dismissing Japan’s Hiroki Moriya 6-0, 6-1, 6-2 in one hour and 40 minutes.

Hometown favorite James Blake survived Lukas Lacko of Slovakia, 7-5, 6-2, 3-6, 6-3, to advance against Marcel Granollers, who defeated Denis Kudla, 6-3, 4-6, 6-3, 7-6 (2).

Japan’s No. 17 seed Kei Nishikori eliminated Argentine Guido Andreozzi 6-1, 6-2, 6-4, to set up a second-round encounter with Tim Smyczek, who prevailed over Bobby Reynolds, 1-6, 6-4, 6-2, 4-6, 6-4.

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