By Steve Keating and Larry Fine
Fourth seed Kei Nishikori’s hopes of making another magical U.S. Open run came to a quick end on Monday as last year’s runner-up fell at the first hurdle, falling 6-4 3-6 4-6 7-6 (6) 6-4 to Frenchman Benoit Paire.
The 26-year-old Paire, having collected his maiden ATP Tour title last month in Bastad, brought his good from to Flushing Meadows grinding out a three hour 14 minute victory to get the season’s final grand slam off to a shocking start.
Japan’s Nishikori, who turned in a marathon effort last year recording five set wins over Milos Raonic and Stan Wawrinki and a four set victor over world number one Novak Djokovic in the semi-finals, had looked ready to survive the opening test coming back from a wobbly opening set.
But after the 41st ranked Paire won the tiebreak he carried the momentum into the fifth set and recorded the decisive break to go up 3-2 before finishing off Nishikori with a thundering ace.
There was an early upset in the women’s draw too as former world number one Ana Ivanovic was the first major casualty of the tournament as the Serbian seventh seed fell 6-3 3-6 6-3 to Dominika Cibulkova in the opening match at Arthur Ashe Stadium.
The 50th-ranked Cibulkova of Slovakia seized the advantage with a service break in the fourth game of third set for a 3-1 lead and consolidated it with a backhand drop shot to make it 4-1 against the former French Open champion.
A backhand long from Ivanovic, who had her left foot taped midway through the final set, ended the nearly two-hour contest.
“Today I know that my game was there on the court,” said the 26-year-old Cibulkova, who cracked the top 10 last year before finishing the season ranked 11th and reached the quarter-finals last week in New Haven.
“I just had to stay tough and know I had to do it, she doesn’t give away shots.”
Cibulkova, a 2014 Australian Open finalist who earlier this year had Achilles-related surgery on her left foot, will next face American qualifier Jessica Pegula, a 7-5 6-3 winner over Belgian Alison Van Uytvanck.
Other early matches on the women’s side went according to script as 13th-seeded Russian Ekaterina Makarova dismissed Brazil’s Teliana Pereira 6-3 6-3, and 15th seed Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland crushed Czech Katerina Siniakova 6-2 6-3.
U.S. Open men’s singles round 1 results:
Ricardas Berankis (Lithuania) beat Joao Sousa (Portugal) 6-2 6-2 4-6 2-6 7-6(4)
Marcel Granollers (Spain) beat Lukas Lacko (Slovakia) 6-2 6-3 6-1
Benoit Paire (France) beat 4-Kei Nishikori (Japan) 6-4 3-6 4-6 7-6(6) 6-4
25-Andreas Seppi (Italy) beat Tommy Paul (U.S.) 6-4 6-0 7-5
18-Feliciano Lopez (Spain) beat Nikoloz Basilashvili (Georgia) 7-6(5) 6-1 6-3
19-Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (France) beat Jarkko Nieminen (Finland) 6-3 6-1 6-1
Mardy Fish (U.S.) beat Marco Cecchinato (Italy) 6-7(5) 6-3 6-1 6-3
Marsel Ilhan (Turkey) beat Radek Stepanek (Czech Republic) 6-0 2-6 6-4 3-2 (Stepanek retired)
17-Grigor Dimitrov (Bulgaria) beat Matthew Ebden (Australia) 6-4 6-2 6-4
14-David Goffin (Belgium) beat Simone Bolelli (Italy) 6-4 6-1 6-2
Mikhail Kukushkin (Kazakhstan) beat Lu Yen-Hsun (Taiwan) 6-3 6-3 3-0 (Lu Y H retired)
U.S. Open women’s singles round 1 results:
Madison Brengle (U.S.) beat Zheng Saisai (China) 6-2 5-7 7-5
Kristina Mladenovic (France) beat 30-Svetlana Kuznetsova (Russia) 6-3 7-5
Kaia Kanepi (Estonia) beat Anna-Lena Friedsam (Germany) 6-1 6-1
Lauren Davis (U.S.) beat Heather Watson (Britain) 7-6(3) 7-6(0)
Dominika Cibulkova (Slovakia) beat 7-Ana Ivanovic (Serbia) 6-3 3-6 6-3
Jessica Pegula (U.S.) beat Alison Van Uytvanck (Belgium) 7-5 6-3
13-Ekaterina Makarova (Russia) beat Teliana Pereira (Brazil) 6-3 6-3
Bojana Jovanovski (Serbia) beat Lara Arruabarrena Vecino (Spain) 6-2 6-2
Anett Kontaveit (Estonia) beat Casey Dellacqua (Australia) 7-5 6-2
15-Agnieszka Radwanska (Poland) beat Katerina Siniakova (Czech Republic) 6-2 6-3 Mariana Duque (Colombia) beat Sofia Kenin (U.S.) 6-3 6-1
