Top seeds Karolina Pliskova and Sofia Kenin crash out of Western and Southern Open

ByEurosport

Updated 24/08/2020 at 07:38 GMT

The Western and Southern Open lost its top two women's seeds on Sunday with number one Karolina Pliskova and number two Sofia Kenin crashing out of the US Open warm-up.

Czech Pliskova, who had a first-round bye, slammed down 11 aces but also committed nine double faults in a 7-5 6-4 defeat to Russia's Veronika Kudermetova.

"I think in the beginning, in the middle of that first set, I tried to feel the speed of her serve," Kudermetova said. "I tried to push every point on receiving. I think it was key. I tried to just keep going on her serve."

Australian Open champion Kenin also struggled to get going, losing 6-1, 7-6(7) to France's Alize Cornet, who beat American wildcard Caty McNally 6-0, 6-4 in the opening round, dropping just 10 points in the first set.

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"It didn't feel like I had any rhythm," said Kenin. "I don't know why I let that happen.

"I literally couldn't feel the ball, like literally two sets. I don't even know how I came back, to be honest.

"It was really frustrating."

It was the Frenchwoman's best win in two years, having last beaten a Top 10 player at the Coupe Rogers in Montreal back in 2018.

"I'm a fighter," she said after the match. "I'm always fighting, so that's nothing new, but tonight was tough because I was 6-1, 5-2 up with two match points."

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Last year's French Open runner-up Marketa Vondrousova continued her run of poor form as the Czech 10th seed lost 6-3, 6-7(3), 6-4 to German qualifier Laura Siegemund in a first-round clash.

Vondrousova, who also made a first-round exit at the WTA Tour's restart in Palermo, was up a break 4-2 in the third and looking set for victory until Siegemund swept the last four games.

Estonian 12th seed Anett Kontaveit, coming off a runner-up finish in Palermo, moved into the second round with a 6-3, 6-1 win over Russian lucky loser Daria Kasatkina, while 14th seed Elise Mertens of Belgium thumped Swede Rebecca Peterson 6-0, 6-2.

• US Open - who's in and who's out?
• US Open - schedule and draw

In the men's draw, Greek fourth seed Stefanos Tsitsipas eased to a 6-1, 6-3 second-round win over South Africa's Kevin Anderson while seventh seed David Goffin sailed past Croatia's Borna Coric 7-6(6), 6-4 into the third round.

Ninth seed Diego Schwartzman was a 7-6(2), 6-3 first-round winner over Norway's Casper Ruud while 11th-seeded Russian Karen Khachanov topped Kazakhstan's Alexander Bublik 6-4, 6-4.

Fourteenth seed Grigor Dimitrov disposed of Frenchman Ugo Humbert 6-3 6-4. The Bulgarian is returning to full fitness following a spell out with coronavirus.

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