Cincinnati 19th August : After back-to-back victories against Grand Slam champions from the past Serena Williams and Victoria Azarenka, England’s Emma Raducanu has been eliminated from the Western & Southern Open by America’s Jessica Pegula 7-5, 6-4. In a battle with two of the best players in the world, it was 28-year-old Pegula who proved a little more powerful than her 19-year-old rival in several of various areas, according to DPA.
Pegula was more dominant in both her serve as well as in her return, securing 73% (46-of-63) of her service points, compared with 60 percent (43-of-72) of Raducanu while generating nine break points in comparison to Raducanu’s three.
She will now take on the well-rounded Caroline Garcia in the quarterfinals after the Frenchwoman defeated Elise Mertens 6-4, 7-5.
France’s Garcia has had 10 wins of her 11 matches in the past which included a win over the world’s top player Iga Swiatek in the month of March.
The loss of Swiatek to Garcia was seen as a huge surprise and so was her defeat to Madison Keys on Thursday as the American defeated her with 6-3 4-4 in just 90 minutes.
Swiatek could only hit 54 per cent of her initial serves in an underwhelming performance for the 21-year-old tennis star.
It wasn’t a great day for top seeded players as the world’s second-ranked Anett Kontaveit was also beaten in the final, losing to China’s Shuai Zhang 2-6, 4-4 and 4-4 in the match in which each woman took home 94% of the 188 points.
Five-time world number one Ons Jabeur made the early exits, falling to Petra Kuvitova 6-1, 4-6 with a 6-0 score.she will play the Australian Ajla Tomljanovic in the quarterfinals following she beat Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova 3-6 7-6 (7-4) 7-6, 3-1.
Elena Rybakina of Kazakhstan won in 6-2, 6-4, against American Alison Riske, and in the final match of the evening, it was Aryna Sabalenka who prevailed over Shelby Rogers 6-4, 6-7 (2-7) 7-6, 6-1.
The prize pot for the upcoming US Open will top USD60 million for the first time in the history of the tournament the organisers of the event have announced.
The 2022 season at Flushing Meadows gets under way on August 29th and runs for less than two weeks.
It was announced on Thursday that USD60 million would be available which is more than previous records of USD57.5 million set last year.with both singles champions expected to be awarded USD2.6 million.
Players will receive USD80,000 to play in the main draw, and USD121,000 if they make it into the second draw.The top two players in the singles draw will be awarded USD1.3 million.
The doubles winner will be awarded USD688,000, the runners-up USD344,000 and semi-finalists will receive USD172,000.
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