Top seeds led the way as the first round of the DC Open began Monday afternoon, with all advancing convincingly in straight sets.
Canadian Leylah Fernandez began her Washington title defense in the tournament’s first match with a tidy win over Magda Linette of Poland, 6-1, 6-4.
“There is that, like, sense of pressure, but it’s not so big as people think,” Fernandez said of defending her title. “For myself, I’ve had good matches here last year, and coming in during training week, my coaches — as always — said that we’re coming here to earn our points and not to defend or not to get another title, but to earn it. That’s been the mindset.”
The No. 7 seed will face the winner of Tuesday afternoon’s highly-anticipated match between Alex Eala and Qinwen Zheng in the second round. Later next month, she’ll pair in mixed doubles at the U.S. Open with Hyattsville’s Frances Tiafoe, a development announced Monday.
“We were trying to think of different partners, maybe who I can message. Frances was definitely at the top of my list,” Fernandez said. “When I first messaged him, I knew he was playing with [D.C. native] Hailey [Baptiste], and it was unfortunate that she sustained an injury at Roland Garros.”
“Frances came back to me and said, ‘Yeah, let’s do it, let’s play, and hopefully we can do well.’ … I know he loves the energy, and I love it, too.”
Following Fernandez’s win, No. 8 Emma Navarro blanked fellow American Sofia Kenin in the first set, and Kenin double-faulted while trying to force a second-set tiebreak, handing Navarro a 6-0, 7-5 victory. Navarro, who starred at the University of Virginia, will face Elisabetta Cocciaretto in the second round. The Italian dropped the first set and needed tiebreaks in the second and third for a gutsy, 4-6, 7-6 (2), 7-6 (2) win over Denmark’s Clara Tauson.
In doubles action, Venus Williams returned to Washington for the second-straight year, teaming with Diana Shnaider to beat Quinn Gleason and Ulrikke Eikeri 6-3, 6-4. Shnaider said tournament director Mark Ein approached her at lunch this week to ask if she wanted to play with Williams after Eala backed out of their announced pairing to focus on singles.
“I’m really grateful to have a great partner,” Williams said. “I think our energy matched, and we’d love to just keep going.”
The 46-year-old tennis legend was unable to play with sister Serena at Wimbledon, with whom she’s won 14 Grand Slam titles, after Serena injured her knee in her first singles match in nearly four years in London. Williams is also in the singles draw, where she’ll face Anastasia Potapova of Austria on Tuesday night.
“I think I said to Diana in the middle of the match, I was like, ’Now we’ve reached the fun zone, we’re having fun,’” Williams said. “Our opponents played very well. They didn’t give it to us, so it was great for us to be able to play together and get to that nice moment where you can smile and enjoy the points.”
On the men’s side, No. 3 Taylor Fritz sprinted to a 6-3 first set win against Zizou Bergs that barely took a half hour, and won a combined 21 second serve and return points to Bergs’ 10 in the second set to close out the match, 6-4.
Zizou’s like a very hyper-aggressive player, so I knew that I was never going to be the one that was getting to dictate from the baseline unless I wanted to just try to go for really, like, just low percentage insane shots,” Fritz said. “So for me, the strategy was always take care of my serve, make sure I’m just serving well and on serve, and then on the flip side, just try to put as many balls in the court as possible.”
No. 4 seed Lorenzo Musetti prevailed in an all-Italian matchup over Matteo Arnaldi after Arnaldi retired in the second set, 6-0, 3-1. And 2023 Washington finalist Talon Griekspoor of the Netherlands lost a first-set tiebreak and eventually fell in three sets to Chile’s Alejandro Tabilo, 7-6 (3), 4-6, 6-4. Tabilo was a near-perfect 14-of-16 on his first-serve points in the third set in closing out the win.
Additionally on Monday, two lucky losers received places in the men’s draw after a pair of withdrawals. Following a withdrawal by Ethan Quinn due to a right foot injury, Zach Svajda will play Aleks Vukic in the first round, and Mackenzie McDonald replaces Jack Draper, who is dealing with a left arm injury, and will face Alex Michelsen.
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