NEW YORK, NY, USA – No.5 seeds Ekaterina Makarova and Elena Vesnina faced down the barrel of five match points – three in a row during the second set tie-break – to turn the tables on Sam Stosur and Zhang Shuai to reach the third round in women’s doubles, 3-6, 7-6(6), 6-4.
Winners in their last two events at the Rogers Cup and Olympic tennis event, Makarova and Vesnina were pushed to the limit by Stosur and Zhang, leading by a set and a break as Stosur held two match points.
“We hadn’t been able to break her the whole match, and then I remember it was 5-4, 40-15 on her serve,” Vesnina said. “It was a crazy match, and they really played well. We played against them at the French Open, and they really played much better here than there.
“Today was a great atmosphere on the court. It was a full stadium on Court 5; so many people came to watch doubles, which was really nice. We just really had fun today on the court as well; the atmosphere was amazing.”
Makarova and Vesnina raised their level to force a tie-break, but the unseeded duo again took an early lead, and the 2011 US Open champion had the chance to serve out the upset twice more before the Russians rebounded.
“They played really good volleys today, reacting so well,” Makarova added. “I can’t say we were missing a lot but the game was really good and they were really good today.”
Playing their first full match since winning the Gold medal, the pair hopes their career-defining achievement will help them hit even bigger results.
“We’re really happy to be playing here at the US Open,” Vesnina said. We have great memories from winning the title here in 2014. Of course, after Rio, we’re just really happy and motivated even more to do well here at a Grand Slam.”
The 2014 champion in women’s doubles two years ago alongside Vesnina, Makarova was more than happy to still be in the tournament after bowing out in the first round of singles to World No.1 Serena Williams. Vesnina has posited that sticking around for doubles is especially helpful if a player’s singles event ends earlier than she’d like, and it was a sentiment with with her partner was in complete agreement.
“I don’t even remember that I lost so early.It was upsetting for me, but doubles helps me still be at the tournament, fighting for the title, practice some other things. Doubles really helps me for singles for sure.”
Around the grounds, top seeds Caroline Garcia and Kristina Mladenovic reached the second round with a 6-3, 6-3 win over Japanese alternates Kurumi Nara and Naomi Osaka, while No.12 seeds Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Lucie Safarova were equally efficient, defeating Lara Arruabarrena and Olga Savchuk, 6-4, 6-1.
No.2 seed Chan Yung-Jan and Chan Hao-Ching ended up on the losing end of a topsy-turvy second round against Alla Kudryavtseva and Sabine Lisicki. Playing just their second match as a pair, Kudryavtseva and Lisicki recovered from a second set bagel to knock out the 2015 quarterfinalists, 6-2, 0-6, 6-3.
“It’s difficult to adjust from more of a doubles player to more of a singles player,” Kudryavtseva told WTA Insider after their first round win. “But Sabine has great volleys; she’s not a typical singles player where she doesn’t know what to do at the net. She knows where she is, where to stand. She’s looking to cross. I’m happy with my choice.”
The Russian doubles star later paired with Scott Lipsky to win another match in mixed doubles, upsetting No.8 seeds Lucie Hradecka and Marcin Matkowski, 7-5, 6-7(3), 11-9.
