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Stosur Advances, but Li Does Not Britain’s Robson Knocks Off Another Seed
(about 1 hour later)
The two early women’s matches at the United States Open on Friday had a lot of symmetry to them. They pitted experienced, championship-caliber players — Samantha Stosur of Australia and Li Na of China — against young players trying to make a name for themselves in this tournament, Varvara Lepchenko and Laura Robson. As the first sweltering weather descended on the United States Open on Friday, it became the day when the tournament’s young players found out how well they could stand the real and metaphorical heat.
But if the story lines were symmetrical, the matches themselves were not. Stosur, the defending champion and seventh seed, absorbed Lepchenko’s best shots in a first set that stretched to a tiebreaker, where she used her experience to persevere and walk away with a straight sets victory, 7-6 (5), 6-2. Ait turned out, only one could. Laura Robson, the 18-year-old from Britain who got attention by ending Kim Clijsters’s singles career in the second round, powered her way past ninth-seeded Li Na of China, 6-4, 6-7 (5), 6-2. Robson’s go-for-broke style wore down Li and earned her a spot in the fourth round.
Robson, however, was not so easily handled. Li, who won the French Open in 2011 for her one major title, tried to turn back Robson’s big-serving game with her ultimate defensive style, but could not get Robson to crack. So Robson added a 6-4, 6-7 (5), 6-2 victory over Li in the third round to her second-round defeat of Kim Clijsters. “My game is based on being aggressive, and if I don’t play that way, then I probably wouldn’t be doing very well,” Robson said. “I had to keep going for it, and that’s what I did.”
“My game is based on being aggressive, and if I don’t play that way then I probably wouldn’t be doing very well,” Robson said. “So I just try to go for all my shots. I had to keep going for it, and that’s what I did.” The young American Ryan Harrison took the same approach to his second-round match against No. 7 Juan Martin Del Potro, but with vastly different results. Harrison, 20, tried pounding his way through the match, but even when Harrison was on, Del Potro was able to handle his pace. Harrison threw in enough errors make Del Potro’s 6-2, 6-3, 2-6, 6-2 victory seem all but inevitable.
The top men’s seeds in action early, No. 2 Novak Djokovic and No. 4 David Ferrer, faced no drama at all. Djokovic dispatched Rogerio Dutra Silva of Brazil, 6-2, 6-1, 6-2, and has lost only seven games in his opening two matches. Ferrer beat Igor Sijsling of the Netherlands, 6-2, 6-3, 7-6 (12), which was easy until the third-set tiebreaker turned into a marathon. “He’s a powerful guy, he serves big and plays good offense,” Harrison said. “Any time the ball is up you’re usually running or watching a winner go by you. So, he played about as well as I expected him to, which is very good tennis. I had to play my best tennis to win and I didn’t, so that’s why I lost.”
The Robson-Li match was a classic match of offense versus defense, power versus experience. Robson’s impressive serve topped out at 114 miles an hour and produced nine aces. Li countered with her usual mix of finesse and stubbornness, which worked to pull her through the second-set tiebreaker but didn’t last through the third. Harrison, though, had a lot of company in the fallen challengers pile. Mallory Burdette, the N.C.A.A. runner-up from Stanford, did not get a foothold in her match against No. 3 Maria Sharapova and lost, 6-1, 6-1.
At 18, Robson has broken through as a star in Britain, as evidenced by soccer star Wayne Rooney congratulating her in a Twitter message. The only problem was, he wrote that her last name is Robinson. Other matches with little drama included No. 2 Novak Djokovic’s 6-2, 6-1, 6-2 victory over Rogerio Dutra Silva of Brazil, No. 4 David Ferrer’s 6-2, 6-3, 7-6 (12) victory over Igor Sijsling of the Netherlands, and fifth-seeded Petra Kvitova’s 6-4, 6-4 win over Pauline Parmentier.
“It’s great that he watched, even though he got my name wrong,” Robson said, adding she doubted Rooney’s explanation that the culprit was predictive text. Varvara Lepchenko, playing her first United States Open as an American after gaining citizenship last year, tried to throw a scare into the defending champion Samantha Stosur of Australia, the No. 9 seed. She stretched Stosur to a first-set tiebreaker, but Lepchenko’s nerves seemed to falter as she sprayed several errors long in the tiebreaker, and Stosur rolled from there.
For a while, Stosur was in danger of suffering the same fate as Li, with Lepchenko mustering enough spunk in the first set to unnerve Stosur for a stretch of games. But once they reached the first-set tiebreaker, Lepchenko’s nerves faltered. She sprayed several errors long, and Stosur capitalized. “It was tricky out there during the first set, and when it’s tight, you know, it’s hard to really kick-start something,” Stosur said. “I think once I got that first set, then I maybe relaxed a little bit more.”
“I think as the match went on, I probably became a little more comfortable, got used to her spin and maybe the wind a little bit more,” Stosur said. “It was tricky out there during the first set, and when it’s tight, you know, it’s hard to really kick-start something. I think once I got that first set then I maybe relaxed a little bit more.” Stosur will face Robson in the fourth round and understands that she will face a challenger with a suitcase full of confidence.
Stosur will now take on Robson in the fourth round and she knows that a young player with a head full of confidence will make the challenge even tougher.
“She’s had two of probably the best wins of her career and she’s starting to maybe live up to some of that potential that people have talked about from when she won junior Wimbledon when she was 14,” Stosur said. “You’ve got to be aware that she’s going to come out swinging and have that confidence behind her.”“She’s had two of probably the best wins of her career and she’s starting to maybe live up to some of that potential that people have talked about from when she won junior Wimbledon when she was 14,” Stosur said. “You’ve got to be aware that she’s going to come out swinging and have that confidence behind her.”
In a surprise, the American Steve Johnson, the two-time defending N.C.A.A. singles champion at Southern Cal, has made the most of his wild card into the main draw, advancing to the third round with a 6-7 (3), 7-6 (5), 6-3, 6-4 victory over Ernests Gulbis of Latvia. Adding to that confidence, Robson got a sure-fire sign she is now a trending topic in Britain: the soccer star Wayne Rooney congratulating her in a Twitter message. The only problem was, he called her Laura Robinson in his post.
Petra Kvitova of the Czech Republic, the fifth seed, won her third-round match over Pauline Parmentier of France, 6-4, 6-4, and No. 11 Marion Bartoli of France beat countrywoman Kristina Mladenovic, 6-2, 6-4. “It’s great that he watched, even though he got my name wrong,” Robson said.
Robson’s advance was no’t the only surprise of the afternoon action. The American Steve Johnson, the two-time defending N.C.A.A. singles champion at Southern California, has made the most of his wild card into the main draw, advancing to the third round with a 6-7 (3), 7-6 (5), 6-3, 6-4 victory over Ernests Gulbis of Latvia.
Johnson generally sits behind Harrison in the pecking order of next American stars, but he has now lasted longer than him in the tournament. And he got to feel the crowd throwing their support behind him.
“It kind of felt like, for me, kind of a college atmosphere,” Johnson said. “The crowd was cheering every point. To know they’re all behind me was pretty special.”
The crowd couldn’t help everyone handle the heat.
NOTES
Lleyton Hewitt, the 2001 champion, worked quite hard to reach the third round. He needed 4 hours 35 minutes to dispatch another crafty veteran, Gilles Muller, 3-6, 7-6 (5), 6-7 (5), 7-5, 6-4. ... Maria Sharapova confirmed that she was no longer engaged to the basketball player Sasha Vujacic. She said the relationship had been over since this spring. The couple became engaged in October 2010.