US Open: Marta Kostyuk cruises past Katie Boulter; Mirra Andreeva reaches Round 2

New York, Aug 26 (IANS) Marta Kostyuk of Ukraine and Mirra Andreeva cruised to a first-round victory while 12th seed Elina Svitolina was knocked out in the opening round of women's singles in the US Open here on Tuesday.

No. 27 seed Kostyuk battled past Great Britain’s Katie Boulter to kick off Round 1 play on Grandstand at the 2025 US Open; the match went the way of the Ukrainian, 6-4, 6-4 in their second encounter.

Both women initially got off to a slow start in their opening service games, but managed to hold. Early on, it was evident that Kostyuk was the more aggressive player, and that mindset helped her quickly jump to a 2-1 lead.

After a tricky service game, Boulter kept that positive momentum and converted a break point to level the first set at 4-4. However, Kostyuk quickly grabbed the break back after a costly double fault from the Brit. She would then serve her way out of a tricky service game to seal the first set.

She continued to hold sway as the service woes started to mount for the Brit. The two women traded breaks early, but the Ukrainian quickly shut it down and broke back to retake a 2-1 lead. She went to extend it to 5-3 when Boulter tried to launch a comeback, saving five match-points before holding serve.

As the Ukrainian served out the match, Boulter made closing the match very hard for the No. 27 seed and roared back to try and level the second set, but Kostyuk managed to close out the match on her sixth match point.

In her second match since Wimbledon, Mirra Andreeva cruised to a first-round victory at the US Open over Alycia Parks. Andreeva dominated, winning 6-0, 6-1 in just 55 minutes.

Back from injury, Mirra Andreeva made short work of Alycia Parks, easing into the US Open second round in just her second match since Wimbledon.

Andreeva admitted she was nervous facing an opponent who had just reached the Monterrey semifinals, but once play began, she settled quickly and stormed through the first set 6-0.

Parks managed to hold serve to start the second set, but that would be her lone game of the day. Andreeva reeled off six straight games to complete a dominant 6-0, 6-1 victory in just 55 minutes. It was a clinical performance from the rising star, who will now face Anastasia Potapova in the second round. Potapova needed three sets to get past China’s Lin Zhu, 6-4, 4-6, 6-2.

Ukraine's Elina Svitolina became the second-highest seed to fall on the women's side at this year's US Open following a straight-sets defeat to Hungary's Anna Bondar.

Bondar, ranked No. 97 in the world, pulled off the 6-2, 6-4 upset win in one hour and 41 minutes to reach the second round and equal her best performance at the Grand Slam level. For Svitolina, it was her first opening-round loss at a Grand Slam since the 2018 Wimbledon Championships.

--IANS

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