NEW YORK, Sept 3: Under normal circumstances, Karolina Pliskova would not have been seeded No. 1 at the US Open and so, while a second-round loss certainly would have been disappointing to her, and noticed by others, it wouldn�t have been as newsworthy.
But what�s normal in 2020? With the women who are 1-2 in the rankings choosing to skip the trip to Flushing Meadows because of the pandemic, No. 3 Pliskova ascended to the top spot in the draw � and by Day 3, she was gone.
Pliskova, the 2016 runner-up at the US Open, made her mood clear during a 6-1, 7-6 (2) loss to 50th-ranked Caroline Garcia on Wednesday by throwing a racket, then again afterward with a series of clipped responses at her news conference.
Pliskova fidgeted with the microphone. Sighed. Shrugged her shoulders. Rolled her eyes.
When a reporter offered possible explanations for the defeat � a new, faster surface on the courts, a lack of atmosphere because there are no spectators, the pressure of her high seeding � Pliskova replied: �Nothing from what you said.�
Her reasoning for the result? �I didn�t play good,� Pliskova said, so �that�s it.� When another member of the media said this back-and-forth must be boring to Pliskova, she said, �Yeah, a little bit. Did you see the match or no?� and soon after remarked, �I don�t know if you understand tennis well enough.�
After a first round that went more to form than ever � 29 of 32 seeded women won their opening matches, a US Open record since the number of seeds was doubled from 16 in 2001 � the surprises started in the second round.
Three Americans turned in upsets of seeded women. Shelby Rogers, ranked 93rd, beat 11th-seeded Elena Rybakina 7-5, 6-1; Ann Li, who is ranked 128th, topped 13th-seeded Alison Riske 6-0, 6-3 in a matchup between two players from Pennsylvania; and Madison Brengle, ranked 84th, took out 19th-seeded Dayana Yastremska 6-2, 6-3.
Other seeded women who were eliminated: No. 12 Marketa Vondrousova, No. 30 Kristina Mladenovic, No. 31 Anastasija Sevastova.
Mladenovic�s loss was the wildest of them all. She led 6-1, 5-1, then later held four match points, but never was able to finish things off and ended up on the wrong end of a 1-6, 7-6 (2), 6-0 result against 102nd-ranked Varvara Gracheva.
Two seeded men exited, too: No. 13 Cristian Garin and No. 24 Hubert Hurkacz.
Pliskova had chances to take the second set against Garcia, who had been 0-8 against top-five opponents at Grand Slam tournaments. � AP
