Top Seeds Advance in Memphis 1st Round, Harrison Falls to Kubot
The top men’s seed, Marin Cilic, and the top women’s seed, Kirsten Flipkens both advanced in the opening round yesterday in Memphis. Cilic won in a 3 set comeback over Ivan Dodig 4-6 6-2 6-3 and Flipkens 6-2 6-2 cruised past over Shahar Peer in a little over an hour.
Flipkens is joined in the 2nd round by 2 seed Sofia Arvidsson, who won 6-4 6-4, over Jana Cepelova. A host of other women who also advanced included Jamie Hampton, 6-3 6-3 over Garbine Muguruza, Marina Erakovic 4-6 7-6 6-4 over Annika Beck, Lesia Tsurenko 6-2 6-4 over Maria Sanchez, Stefanie Voegele 7-6 6-0 over Silvia Soler-Espinosa and last but certainly not least, Victoria Duval, who at 17, won her first ever WTA match 3-6 6-1 6-3 over Johanna Larsson. Memphis Tiger Courtney Collins was outmatched by Kristen Mladenovic 6-3, 6-1.
In Sunday main draw singles it should be noted that Heather Watson, Melinda Czink, Magdalena Rybarikova and Lauren Davis all advanced to the 2nd round.
In ladies doubles action, the following teams advanced: Dabrowski/Kudryavtseva over the top seeds Hlavackova/Hradecka, Lee-Waters/Pegula over Czink/Lucic, Erakovic/Watson over Murdock/Slupska and Dolonc/Hrdinova over Townsend/Vandeweghe.
In the other two men’s singles matches on the docket yesterday, Rhyne Williams continued his streak of good play in winning a close encounter over Steve Johnson, 7-6 6-4 and Lukasz Kubot beat Ryan Harrison, 6-4 6-7 7-6 in a tight back and forth match.
Ryan Harrison Bombed Out in Memphis by Kubot
In men’s doubles, 2 seeds Mirnyi/Tecau fell to Blake/Sock and Melzer/Petzschner beat Cabal/Mayer.
Today is our first day of onsite coverage. I’ll be watching defending champ Jurgen Melzer vs sizzling Igor Sijsling bright and early on stadium, which will be followed by the huge matchup of Sabine “Boom Boom” Lisicki vs Madison Keys. Following that will be a battle of veterans James Blake and Florian Mayer and the Sam Querrey vs Alejandro Falla rematch.
On grandstand, Alex Bogomolov will play Michael Russell, Lauren Davis will play Magdalena Rybarikova in a 2nd round singles match, Melanie Oudin will play Andrea Hlavackova, Coco Vandeweghe will play Jamie Hampton in a 2nd round singles match and Benjamin Becker will duel with Feliciano Lopez.
On court 1, Arvidsson/Larsson will play Falconi/Sanchez, Gonzalez/Lipsky will play the alternate team of Matosevic/Malisse, who replace Verdasco/Marrero, after Verdasco unfortunately withdrew with a neck injury last night. This team is also interesting given they were just playing against each other in the doubles final in San Jose on Sunday. Lucie Hradecka will play Claire Feuerstein, Cilic/Sa will play Dodig/Melo, and Peer/Scheepers will play Mladenovic/Voskoboeva.
The night session matches will be John Isner against Denis Istomin, followed by Kei Nishikori vs. Illya Marchenko. On the outer courts, Huey/Inglot vs Butorac/Hanley and Muguruza/Espinosa against Hibberd/Welcher.
Don’t forget, for coverage of the instant, live-tweeted variety, I can be found @nolesfan2011.
—Steen Kirby
