Serena Williams Moves Into Second Round At U.S. Open

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Published on September 1 2015 6:27 am
Last Updated on September 1 2015 6:27 am

Serena Williams began her bid to complete a calendar-year Grand Slam by moving into the second round of the US Open when her opponent, 86th-ranked Vitalia Diatchenko of Russia, stopped playing because of an injury with the American ahead 6-0, 2-0.

The match lasted only 27 minutes. Williams won 32 of the 37 points they played. Diatchenko was visited by a trainer during the first set and got her left foot and ankle taped. Next for Williams is a match against Kiki Bertens of the Netherlands.

Williams is trying to become the first player to win all four Grand Slam tournaments in a season since Steffi Graf in 1988. While Williams is off to a dream start, the same can't be said for the other seeded players in the women's field.

The quarter of the women's draw at the US Open that was supposed to feature third-ranked Maria Sharapova is running out of seeded players fast.

A day after Sharapova withdrew because of a lingering right-leg injury, four of the seven remaining seeds in the quarter lost early Monday: No. 7 Ana Ivanovic, No. 10 Carla Suarez-Navarro, No. 21 Jelena Jankovic and No. 30 Svetlana Kuznetsova. Only No. 13 Ekaterina Makarova, No. 17 Elina Svitolina and No. 25 Eugenie Bouchard had won.

Ivanovic lost her first-round match against Dominika Cibulkova, a former top-10 player and Australian Open runner-up whose ranking had fallen to 50th because of injury.

In other action, CoCo Vandeweghe beat fellow American Sloane Stephens in straight sets.

A remarkable U.S. Open run that concluded with an appearance in the final last year changed the perception of Kei Nishikori, but a first-round loss Monday reminded why doubts have lingered about him.

A native of Japan, Nishikori, 25, entered this year's US Open with a career-high ranking of No. 4 and three titles, including Washington earlier this month. There was nothing to suggest he would struggle in Monday's opening round -- or that he ultimately would be done less than 3½ hours into the fortnight.

Frenchman Benoit Paire came back to stun Nishikori 6-4, 3-6, 4-6, 7-6 (6), 6-4 in Louis Armstrong Stadium for the certifiably biggest win of his career.