US Open Recap: Eighth-Seed Ana Ivanovic Falls To Karolina Pliskova In Second Round
The top seeds in women's tennis are falling like flies at the 2014 US Open.
Ana Ivanovic, the women's eight-seed, was eliminated by No. 42 Czech Karolina Pliskova bowing down in to straight sets, 7-5, 6-4. She was uncharacteristically sloppy during the whole game, spreading 29 unforced errors.
This was sour end to an otherwise bright year for the come backing Ivanovic who has won 47 matches all throughout the year, the most of any female player in the sport. While she won PGA tours, she was not able to snatch any major tournament. She reached the quarterfinals of the Australian Open but was eliminated in the preliminary rounds at Roland Garros and Wimbledon.
However, she accumulated three titles for the year which propelled her back to the top ten rankings, her best since 2009 when she won the French Open. The US Open was more of her Achilles heel, reaching only the quarterfinals just once in 10 appearances.
''It was just really bad day,'' the eighth-seeded Ivanovic said via the tournament's official website. "My rhythm was really off. And, yeah, my forehand wasn't working at all.''
The Serbian player assessed that she has to perform well in major tournaments while she did have great success in the lead-ups to such competitions. She is the latest top seed to exit early in New York joining no. 4 ranked Agnieszka Radwanska, who bowed to Peng Shuai in the second round.
In other women's singles developments, top-seeded Serena Williams had an easy outing over no. 81 Vania King, 6-1, 6-0. She is determined to become the first women to capture the US Open for three consecutive years and still remains the favorite to do so as shown by her performance in the second round, battling poor weather conditions to impose a dominating win.
Victoria Azarenka, the 16th seed, came back from being down 0-3 in the first set, to beat 44th ranked American Christina McHale, 6-3, 6-2 in the other second round match-up. Azarenka had to overcome injury concerns during the year to be able to capture the magic of Australian Open wins.