New York, Aug 31 : In the fight for US Open champions Emma Raducanu and two-time winner of Flushing Meadows Naomi Osaka were eliminated from the season-ending Grand slam losing their first round matches to Alize Cornet and Danielle Collins on Wednesday (IST).Record-breaking for her 63rd consecutive appearance in a major, Alize Cornet of France took the spotlight, completing Raducanu’s title defense in the Louis Armstrong Stadium 3-6, 3-3.Raducanu was climbing to the top 10 of the WTA rankings in July, is set to fall out of the top 75 following her first-round loss.
American 19th seed Danielle Collins, who had not played since July, came back at her top in her 7-6(5) 7-6(5), 6-3 first-round victory against two-time champion Osaka with her stunning baseline strokes.
The Australian Open finalist, who took home her first win in four matches against Osaka she will play the Spaniard Cristina Bucsa in the next round.
Raducanu was unable to serve three times in the first set, with the third time due to an error that was double error.
It was 3-4 in the second set, when Cornet struck a stunning half-volley winner that led to her sixth break of Raducanu’s serve.Seven breaks was enough to earn Cornet an opportunity to play in the second round.
“My game on the net was decent,” Cornet was quoted by wtatennis.com.”I played lots of variations — I think that’s what helped tonight.”
The 32-year-old Cornet is placed No.37 and has five wins that are in the top-20 this year.These include an upset of No.1 Iga Swiatek at Wimbledon and a win over Romania’s Simona Halep in Melbourne.
“I believe I’m handling my emotions more effectively,” Cornet said.”I think I’m getting older and more mature.It’s evident in my test results.I’m 32, which is it’s better later than never.”
Cornet will be playing in her third consecutive Grand Slam main draw, the longest streak in the Open Era.She will take on Katerina Siniakova of the Czech Republic in the second round.
“I discovered that I’ve beat an Grand Slam champion on every Slam this year,” Cornet said.”I find it a bit crazy.It’s sort of cool.The players I’m admiring I’ve been following for a long while and knowing that I’m a an integral part of this universe, knowing that I could beat them at an Slam I don’t even know I still feel like a child at times.”
In the meantime, Australian Open finalist Danielle Collins said after her win over Osaka she felt she had learned much about the game of her opponent following losing in the three previous encounters against the Japanese.
“When you lose to someone three times, you will get lots of information about how you can improve on,” Collins said.”With Naomi being the player she is she is, she definitely whooped me the last time.I needed to learn from that and make some adjustments, and I believe I did that.”
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