Halep Rolls in Flushing Opener as Seeds Continue to Falter

Simona Halep began her U.S. Open campaign with a routine straight-set victory on Tuesday, downing New Zealand’s Marina Erakovic 6-2, 3-0 (retired) in the first-round.

Halep converted on four of her six break point chances and won 87 percent of her first serves before Erakovic retired with a knee injury.

“I had a good match,” said Halep. “I think I was playing very aggressively. I served pretty well; I returned okay. She has a second serve with a lot of topspin, and it’s really tough to return. But it was a great match. I was playing with confidence and didn’t let her play her game.”

Halep will play the winner of the match between Yulia Putintseva and Kateryna Bondarenko next. With the win, Halep improves her U.S. Open record to 8-5

Continuing Monday’s theme, a number of top seeds on the women’s side fell on Tuesday.

Lesia Tsurenko dominated sixth-seed Lucie Safarova 6-4, 6-1 to advance. The match was on serve through the first four games, but that was when Tsurenko broke through. She broke for a 3-2 lead and one more break allowed her to take the opening set.

She broke three times in the second set and never gave Safarova a window to get herself back in it. She took advantage of 19 unforced errors in the second set from Safarova to roll to the straight set win.

"I talked with my coach about what to change. I changed the serve a little bit, made it a more active movement," said Tsurenko. "I received pretty bad because she was a lefty. This time, I was playing at the back more."

Tsurenko will play American Varvara Lepchenko in the second-round. Lepchenko moved past Belgium’s Kirsten Flipkens 6-1, 6-1.

Fourteenth-seeded Swiss Timea Bacsinszky was also ousted on Tuesday, as she was defeated by Barbora Strycova, 7-5, 6-0. Up next for Strycova is China’s Qiang Wang, a 7-5, 6-2 winner on the day over Greece's Maria Sakkari.

Olga Govortsova of Belarus also took out a seeded player on Tuesday as well, beating the number 28 seed, Romania’s Irina-Camelia Begu, 6-1, 0-6, 7-6(3). Govortsova moves into the second round where she will next face the winner of Tuesday’s match between Tsvetana Pironkova of Bulgaria and Germany’s Mona Barthel.