Ukraine’s Daria Snigur pulled off a stunning 6-2, 0-6, 6-4 upset of seventh seed Simona Halep of Romania in the first round of the U.S. Open in New York.
Snigur bounced back from a brutal second set, winning 5 of 5 net points in the third in addition to 15 of 23 points on her first serve (65.2 percent) to edge the two-time Grand Slam champion.
It was an emotional win for Snigur, who had a Ukrainian ribbon pinned to her chest to support her home country, which is still in the midst of a war with Russia.
“I’m very, very, very nervous but I tried to do my best,” Snigur said. “For Ukraine, for my family … I want to say, thank you all.”
Great Britain’s Harriet Dart, Russia’s Evgeniya Rodina and China’s Shuai Zhang also toppled ranked opponents, defeating No. 10 seed Daria Kasatkina of Russia, No. 27 seed Martina Trevisan of Italy and No. 30 seed Jil Teichmann of Switzerland, respectively.
No. 2 seed Anett Kontaveit of Estonia picked up a straight-sets win against Romania’s Jaqueline Cristian. Greek No. 3 seed Maria Sakkari, Tunisian fifth seed Ons Jabeur, No. 17 seed Caroline Garcia of France, Russian 18th seed Veronika Kudermetova and No. 23 seed Barbora Krejcikova of the Czech Republic were all able to prevent the underdog from escaping the first round.
No. 12 seed Coco Gauff, No. 20 seed Madison Keys, 29th seed Alison Riske-Amritraj and No. 31 seed Shelby Rogers, who are all playing on their home soil, also escaped with victories.
No. 14 seed Leylah Fernandez of Canada, who reached the U.S. Open final last year, dumped France’s Oceane Dodin 6-3, 6-4.
No. 15 seed Beatriz Haddad Maia of Brazil secured a rare double bagel, a 6-0, 6-0 win over Ana Konjuh of Croatia.
In other action, Canadian Bianca Andreescu slid past France’s Harmony Tan, Italian Camila Giorgi overcame a first-set loss to defeat Hungarian Anna Bondar, Romania’s Elena-Gabriela Ruse bested Daria Saville of Australia and Saville’s countrywoman, Ajla Tomljanovic, swept Karolina Muchova of the Czech Republic.
American Elizabeth Mandlik, Canadian Rebecca Marino, Belgian Maryna Zanevska, Colombian Camila Osorio, Russians Anna Kalinskaya and Liudmila Samsonova, Hungarian Dalma Galfi, Serbian Aleksandra Krunic, Xiyu Wang of China and Slovakians Anna Karolina Schmiedlova and Viktoria Kuzmova also won their matches Monday.
Serena Williams prevailed in the first match of her U.S. Open farewell, downing Montenegro’s Danka Kovinic 6-3, 6-3.
–Field Level Media
