Alena Bondarenko and Sergei Stakhovsky continue to fight at the US Open

On Wednesday, representatives of Ukraine performed successfully at the Grand Slam tournament - US Open. The country's first racket Alena Bondarenko confidently defeated American Melanie Oudin and reached the third round of the competition. The strongest tennis player of Ukraine, Sergei Stakhovsky, despite failure in the first set of the match against Australian Peter Luczak, turned the tide of the match and advanced to the second round.

Despite the fact that Alena Bondarenko received the status of being seeded 29th at the US Open, in the second round match against 18-year-old American Melanie Udin, who occupies 43rd position in the world ranking, the host of the court was considered the favorite. Udin gained popularity in her homeland thanks to her successful performance at the 2009 US Open, when this 17-year-old junior reached the quarterfinals, eliminating three titled Russians - Elena Dementieva, Maria Sharapova and Nadezhda Petrova.

In addition to her opponent, the Ukrainian was confronted on Wednesday by 10 thousand spectators who filled the stands of the Louis Armstrong court. However, as it turned out, their support rather hindered the American: Melanie Oudin was nervous and made a huge number of mistakes, allowing Alena Bondarenko to make a break in the first game. According to the Ukrainian, in the first set she didn’t even have to force things; she just had to wait for her opponent to misfire, who made 38 unforced errors during the match. Bondarenko’s advantage became overwhelming, and in 34 minutes. she brought the game to victory - 6:2.

In the second set, Udin managed to level the game - she responded to the Ukrainian break with her own. The key moment of the match came in the 11th game with the score 5:5. Alena Bondarenko played brilliantly on her opponent's serve, not allowing her to win a single rally, and made another break. The first racket of Ukraine put a spectacular end to the match in the next game, winning it again “dry” and making it to the 1/16 finals of the US Open. There Bondarenko will play with the sixth seeded, Italian Francesca Schiavone. Previously, the tennis players met seven times, the Italian won four, and the Ukrainian won three. Alena Bondarenko achieved the last of them this season, confidently defeating Schiavone in the Fed Cup match - 6:1, 6:4.

Sergei Stakhovsky played his opening match in singles on Wednesday. The first opponent of the Ukrainian, who won the prestigious tournament in New Haven last week and rose to 36th position in the world rankings, looked quite passable - Australian Peter Luczak ranks 118th in the ATP classification. But the native of Poland made it clear in the first set that he would not tolerate a lenient attitude towards himself. In an equal game, everything was decided in a tiebreaker, where Stakhovsky showed excessive wastefulness, failing to convert four set points. Luchak took advantage of the gift and won the set - 7:6 (10:8).

In the second game, the initiative was already in the hands of the Australian tennis player, who twice made breaks, to which the Ukrainian, who received medical assistance every now and then (he sprained his leg twice during the match), managed to respond with his own. Peter Luczak brought it to a set point, but was unable to convert it. Stakhovsky, having made a break, saved the game, won it 7:5 and evened the score in the match. This moment turned out to be a turning point in the game. Our tennis player subsequently controlled the situation. He won the third game, hitting four aces in a row on his serve in the final game - 6:4, and took the fourth set with virtually no resistance from the Australian - 6:2. In the second round, Sergei Stakhovsky will meet with American Ryan Harrison, who unexpectedly beat Croatian Ivan Ljubicic, seeded 15th, in the 1/64 finals. Stakhovsky had not met the 18-year-old American, ranked 220th in the ATP rankings, before.

Dmitry Martsenishin

The Ukrainians hit the first rackets