IN a day that could not be more contrasting for the ATP and WTA Tour’s at Acapulco, seven of the eight men’s seeds are through to the second round of the Mexican Open after only the injured Nick Kyrgios missed out on making it. On the women’s side of the draw, the top five seeds are out of the tournament, with only the bottom three seeds – sixth, seventh and eighth still fighting in the Round of 16.

While the majority of the seeded wins were straightforward, one of the best matches of the day was Serbian Dusan Lajovic‘s three-set victory over United States’ Steve Johnson. The eighth seed had to battle over two and a half hours to finally oust the 73rd ranked Johnson, defeating him from a set down to come back and win 6-7 6-4 6-3. In the match Lajovic served up 11 aces and had a serving efficiency of 61 per cent, of which he successfully converted 77 per cent of his first serve points. He also broke five times from 13 opportunities compared to his opponents’ three from 13, and won 42 per cent of his return points. The world number 24 now faces South Korean, Soonwoo Kwon in the second round after he too won a three-set contest 6-2 2-6 6-3, over lucky loser, Taro Daniel.

The only other three-set match was United States’ Taylor Fritz‘s win over Australian, John Millman. Fritz got up 7-5 3-6 6-1 in just under two hours to break his poor form in the States’ having lost to 164th ranked Mitchell Kreuger at Newport Beach trying to defend that title, and then to Cameron Norrie at Delray Beach last week in the first round. Millman has not won since the Australian Open where he defeated young talents Ugo Humbert and Hubert Hurkacz, and pushed Roger Federer in an epic five-set contest. Now Fritz faces Humbert after the Frenchman won against a retiring Kyrgios while being a set up at the time. The Australian firebrand was forced to pull out due to a wrist injury.

In the seeded results, top two seeds Rafael Nadal and Alexander Zverev breezed through to the second round in straight sets, as did Felix Auger-Aliassime with more fight shown from lucky loser, Alex Bolt. Fifth seed, John Isner followed suit with a straight sets win over German wildcard, Mischa Zverev – Alexander’s older brother 10 years his senior – as seventh seed Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov saw off Bosnia-Herzegovinan qualifier, Damir Dzumhur 6-3 6-3. In the only other match, Pedro Martinez who benefited from a quarter finals appearance at Rio and therefore received a special exemption to the main draw – defeated Romanian Radu Albot 6-3 6-2.

ATP ROUND OF 32 RESULTS:

[1] R. Nadal (ESP) defeated P. Andujar (ESP) 6-3 6-2
[2] A. Zverev (GER) defeated [Q] J. Jung (TAI) 7-6 6-1
[4] F. Auger-Aliassime (CAN) defeated [LL] A. Bolt (AUS) 6-3 7-6
[5] J. Isner (USA) defeated [WC] M. Zverev (GER) 6-3 7-6
U. Humbert (FRA) defeated [6] N. Kyrgios (AUS) 6-3 0-0 RET
[7] G. Dimitrov (BUL) defeated [Q] D. Dzumhur (BIH) 6-3 6-3
[8] D. Lajovic (SRB) defeated S. Johnson (USA) 6-7 6-4 6-3
S. Kwon (KOR) defeated [LL] T. Daniel (JPN) 6-2 2-6 6-3
T. Fritz (USA) defeated J. Millman (AUS) 7-5 3-6 6-1
[SE] P. Martinez (ESP) defeated R. Albot (ROU) 6-3 6-2

It was absolute carnage in the women’s draw, with the number one seed, Sloane Stephens bowing out to a Mexican wildcard in just an hour and 25 minutes. The tournament favourite and former Grand Slam winner’s poor form this season continued, with her fourth straight first round exit having not won since Beijing in September. Now ranked 35th in the world, Stephens has not made a quarter final since last year’s Roland Garros as she continues to tumble down the rankings. This loss was particularly bad, going down to the 270th ranked 22-year-old Renata Zarazua. No doubt having plenty of support in her home tournament, Zarazua won her first match in an International WTA Tour tournament since a come-from-behind victory over Australian, Ajla Tomljanovic at Colombia back in 2018. The 6-4 6-2 win over Stephens was by far the Mexican’s best of her career, and she was impressive dropping just 20 points for the match on-serve, while breaking five times to two and winning an elite 75 per cent of Stephens’ second serve points.

The other player that jumps out on the page from her win was Canadian qualifier, Leylah Fernandez. The 17-year-old has a 7/3 record in 2020 thus far and thrust herself into lights with a win over world number five, Belinda Bencic 6-2 7-6 at the Fed Cup. Her only two main draw wins on the WTA Tour – outside the ITF Circuit – were against players ranked outside the top 400 back in 2018. Her fourth win on the tour was against 82nd ranked Nina Stojanovic, 6-4 6-1 to move through to the Round of 16 to come up against eighth seed, Nao Hibino of Japan.

In other results, fourth seed Lauren Davis and fifth seed wildcard, Venus Williams both bowed out in three sets, going down to Christina McHale and Kaja Juvan – the latter of whom saved seven match points to down Williams in a thriller. Zhu Lin broke the trend of seeds bowing out with the Chinese sixth seed booking a spot in the next round against Brit, Katie Boulder. Also through were a couple of qualifiers in American Caroline Dolehide and Italian Sara Errani, while United States’ wildcard Katie Volynets upset compatriot Shelby Rogers to book a second round date with fellow wildcard, Zarazua.

WTA ROUND OF 32 RESULTS:

[WC] R. Zarazua (MEX) defeated [1] S. Stephens (USA) 6-4 6-2
C. McHale (USA) defeated [4] L. Davis (USA) 6-2 1-6 6-4
K. Juvan (SLO) defeated [5] V. Williams (USA) 4-6 7-6 6-2
[6] L. Zhu (CHN) defeated K. Zavatska (UKR) 7-6 6-2
K. Boulter (GBR) defeated [LL] F. Di Lorenzo (USA) 2-6 6-3 6-2
[WC] K. Volynets (USA) defeated S. Roers (USA) 6-2 7-6
[Q] S. Errani (ITA) defeated S. Sorribes Tormo (ESP) 7-5 6-4
[Q] L. Fernandez (CAN) defeated N. Stojanovic (SRB) 6-4 6-1
[Q] C. Dolehide (USA) defeated [Q] U. Arconada (USA) 6-2 6-2