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AFP
Washington
Sam Querrey made a triumphant start to his first event since stunning top-ranked Novak Djokovic at Wimbledon, rallying Tuesday to reach the third round of the ATP and WTA Washington Open.
The 28-year-old American outlasted compatriot Bjorn Fratangelo 6-7 (5/7), 6-4, 6-4, avenging a first-round French Open loss in May and spoiling his rival's 23rd birthday in the first hardcourt event on the road to the US Open.
"Even without the Novak win, it would have been tough,"Querrey said."It was one of those matches you have to fight through and I'm happy I fought through the way I did."
Eighth seed Querrey downed Djokovic in the third round on Wimbledon grass, ending the Serb's 30-match major win streak on his way to his first career Grand Slam quarter-final after 10 years of trying, where he lost to Canada's Milos Raonic.
"I feel the same, maybe a little cooler,"Querrey said."I'm confident. Beating Novak or not, I'm feeling confident."
On the women's side, Japan's Risa Ozaki second-seeded beat defending champion Sloane Stephens 6-2, 6-1. The 136th-ranked Asian standout needed only 56 minutes to rout the 23rd-ranked American.
Next up for Querrey is Ukraine's 11th-seeded Alexandr Dolgopolov, who edged Australian Jordan Thompson 6-4, 1-6, 7-6 (7/4).
Stephens found defending her first WTA title a difficult task, but with crowns this year at Auckland, Acapulco and Charleston, she will have more chances.
Puerto Rican third seed Monica Puig outfought France's Oceane Dodin 6-2, 4-6, 6-3 to advance into the second round. She could face Aussie top seed Samantha Stosur in the semi-finals.
Three matches were halted by rain and will be finished Wednesday. Rain and hail were so severe that people on the grounds were evacuated from tents and taken inside the main stadium to wait until the storm passed.
Alison Riske rallies to advance
In San Francisco, Alison Riske overcame some third-set jitters to beat Varvara Lepchenko 2-6, 6-3, 7-6 (7/4) and advance to the second round Tuesday at the WTA Tour's Stanford tournament.
Riske had to rally twice in the match against the eighth-seeded Lepchenko, dropping the first set and then letting a 4-2 lead slip away in the third before winning in a tie-breaker.
Riske, ranked 78th in the world, improved to 11-12 on the year. She next plays Romanian qualifier Ana Bogdan.
Riske now has a 3-2 edge over Lepchenko in career meetings, having won the last three after dropping the first two matches.
In the night session 17-year-old American Catherine Bellis posted her first main draw win of the season outlasting fellow teen Jelena Ostapenko in straight sets 6-4, 6-4.
Bellis, who burst onto the scene in 2014 when she became the youngest at age 15 to win a main draw match at the US Open, benefitted from the sixth seeded Ostapenko's nine double faults.
"In the end, I was just a little bit more consistent than she was," Bellis said."I had a couple of heart attacks, but it's all good."
In other matches Tuesday, Poland's Magda Linette beat Czech Kristyna Pliskova 2-6, 6-2, 7-5; American wildcard Julia Boserup beat Japan's Naomi Osaka 2-6, 6-4, 6-4 and Urszula Radwanska of Poland toppled Kateryna Bondarenko 6-4, 7-5.
