Mutua Madrid Open 2019: Opening Round Upsets

Published 05/05/2019, 5:58 PM EDT

The second clay Masters event, the Mutua Madrid Open 2019 kick-started with its opening round matches. The day was followed by a series of upsets on both ATP and WTA courts of the Spanish capital.

To begin with, the World Number 34, Nick Kyrgios got knocked down by Jan-Lennard Struff who reached the pre-quarters at Indian Wells and quarterfinals in Barcelona this year. The German saw off Kyrgios 7-6(4), 6-4 and the Australian conceded an early exit in the opening round of Mutua Madrid Open 2019.

The Spaniard, Garbine Muguruza was devastated on her home-loam. The Istanbul Open champion, Petra Martic took out the multiple-time Grand Slam champion, Muguruza 7-5, 7-6(2) in the opening round of the Mutua Madrid Open 2019.

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The eleventh seed Caroline Wozniacki retired from her opening round match in Madrid. She was playing against the Frenchwoman, Alize Cornet and Cornet took a 3-0 lead in the opening set. However, a lower back torment impelled the Dane to leave the Mutua Madrid Open 2019 in an unfinished manner.

The Ukrainian, Elina Svitolina played her first match since her opening round loss at the Miami Open 2019. After her defeat in Florida, she was working upon curing her knee injury. In Madrid, she was dispatched by Pauline Parmentier 6-4, 7-6(6) in the first round. Parmentier received her second career win against a top ten player. Also, the sixth seed, Svitolina became the first top-eight seed to crash out from the Mutua Madrid Open 2019.

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The American, Madison Keys had a tough day at the office. She was seeded 13th at Mutua Madrid Open 2019 but got dislodged by the Romanian, Sorana Cirstea. She took down Keys 3-6, 6-4, 6-1 and next Cirstea will play Caroline Garcia who received a comfortable victory over the Taiwanese, Hsieh Su-Wei.

The Morocco Open champion, Maria Sakkari is also out from the Mutua Madrid Open 2019 championship. Yesterday, Svetlana Kuznetsova knocked down the tenth seed, Aryna Sabalenka in straight sets.

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The day in Madrid concluded with one of the biggest upset. In the battle between the Canadians, the new era contenders, Denis Shapovalov and Felix Auger-Aliassime put up the show. Auger-Aliassime defeated his compatriot in straight sets 6-2, 7-6(7) and it was his first professional win against Shapovalov. Up next, it is a big match for Auger-Aliassime as he will take on the ‘King of Clay’, Rafael Nadal in his second round of the Mutua Madrid Open 2019.

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Mahalakshmi Murali joined EssentiallySports in 2018 as a tennis author and has gone on to pen more than 1800 engaging articles, probing into various aspects of the sport and its illustrious players. With her expertise on the sport, Mahalakshmi has interviewed stalwarts from the sport such as Serena WIlliams’ coach Patrick Mouratoglou and Kevin Anderson’s physio, Carlos Costa. Equipped with her vast experience and a keen understanding of the sport, Mahalakshmi now co-heads the tennis department.