New Delhi: Sixth seed Madison Keys slumped to a 6-7(10) 7-6(3) 7-5 defeat to Renata Zarazua in the opening round of the US Open, while Venus Williams, Petra Kvitova and Caroline Garcia also suffered the same fate.
The 30-year-old won the Australia Open at the start of the year but ended with with disappointment at his home Grand Slam as she made 89 unforced errors and 14 double faults in front of disbelieving spectators at the Arthur Ashe Stadium.
“I feel like today … for the first time in a while, my nerves really got the better of me, and it became a little bit paralysing,” Keys said after the match.
“I felt like I was just slow, I wasn’t seeing things the way that I wanted to which I feel resulted in a lot of bad decisions and lazy footwork. So I feel like that’s the summary.
“I think it was probably building a little bit. You always feel first-round jitters and as the day gets closer, feel a little bit more and more nervous,” she added.
“But I feel for whatever reason today I couldn’t separate myself from the… feeling that winning matters just way too much… Once you start playing badly it just all snowballs.”
Seven-time Grand Slam winner Venus Williams rolled back the years in her first Gramd Slam match in two year but went down 6-3, 2-6, 6-1 to 11th seed Karolina Muchova.
Kvitova, Garcia retire
Two-time Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova bid goodbye to tennis after suffering a 6-1 6-0 loss to Diane Parry at the Grandstand Stadium.
The 35-year-old had announced in June that she would bring curtains on her 18-year career in New York.
Kvitova triumphed at the All England Club in 2011 and 2014, claimed a total of 31 WTA Tour titles and reached a career-high of second in the world rankings.
“I wanted to put out a better performance but it was tough to know that maybe it was my last one – [I’m] emotional. It’s been a long and amazing journey,” she said afterwards.
Former world number four Caroline Garcia also retired after slumping to a 6-4 4-6 6-3 defeat to Kamila Rakhimova at Flushing Meadows.