Day Three and some carnage at the top

Things seemed to be rattling along pleasantly for the bulk of top ranked players this week but Day Three tripped up a number of them.

Wildcard and fourth seed Jelena Ostapenko confirmed her horror start to 2018 with yet another loss after a first round bye - this one to Elena Vesnina 6-1 7-6(6).

The reigning Roland Garros champion lost her first two matches this year to players outside the top thirty, and bowed out of the last two tournaments - Premier class - also in her opening hit.

In between she only made the third round at the Aus Open, and her sole St Petersburg success was a win over 197th ranked Vera Zvonareva, before being assassinated by Petra Kvitova, posting just two games.

Still sitting at 6 in the world rankings, Ostapenko needs to start proving her 2017 wasn’t just a flash in the pan, otherwise her hope of defending Paris in May/June will be fanciful.

Another seed to fall by the wayside in Dubai was wildcard seventh seed Johanna Konta, losing to Daria Kasatkina of Russia. After taking the second set in a tight tie break, Daria triumphed 4-6 7-6(6) 6-2.

Other Dubai second round matches:

Elina Svitolina (1) defeated lucky loser in qualifying Qiang Wang 6-1 5-7 6-2

Wildcard Naomi Osaka defeated Anett Kontaveit 6-2 7-6(5)

Karolina Pliskova (3) defeated Carla Suárez Navarro 5-7 6-2 6-4

Angie Kerber (6) defeated qualifier Sara Errani 6-4 6-2

Caroline Garcia (5) defeated Ekaterina Makarova 6-4 6-2

Garbine Muguruza (2) defeated wildcard CiCi Bellis 6-3 7-5

Rio de Janeiro has seen the exit of fourth seed Albert Ramos-Vinolas, with victory to Nicolas Jarry of Chile, ranked 94, 7-5 6-3.

Other Rio de Janeiro second round matches:

Diego Schwartzman (6) defeated Federico Delbonis 6-2 6-3

Rain suspended play with Gael Monfils leading top seed Marin Cilic 6-3 6-6 and 7-7 in the tie break, Cilic a serve to come.

The final match originally scheduled was lucky loser in qualifying Gastao Elias v seventh seed Pablo Cuevas.

Those matches will be completed/started tomorrow.

Wildcard and sixth seed John Isner was sent packing from Delray Beach by 64th ranked Peter Gojowczyk in three tie break sets 7-6(3) 6-7(4). 7-6(5)

Ninth seed Milos Raonic exited the same tournament thanks to Steve Johnson, a former top twenty player who has slipped out of the top 50.

Johnson prevailed in a match where he won 25 of 29 points on his first serve, and he held serve for the entire match which ended 6-2 6-4.

Those upsets paled into insignificance to the defeat of top seed Jack Sock by 20 year old compatriot, wildcard Reilly Opelka, ranked 228.

6’11” Opelka served down 17 aces in his 4-6 7-5 6-3 shock win.

Sock is yet to register a win in 2018, losing both in Auckland and the Aus Open to players ranked 65 and 41 respectively, and now Delray Beach where he was defending champion.

Other Delray Beach second round matches:

Evgeny Donskoy defeated Donald Young 7-6(6) 6-3

Spain’s Roberto Bautista Agut, was bounced out of the Marseille tournament after a first round bye, to the delight of the crowd, by 56th ranked Frenchman Julien Benneteau 7-6(2) 7-6(5)

Other Marseille results:

First round completion

Mischa Zverev defeated Blaz Kavcic 6-4 6-4

Gilles Muller (6) defeated lucky loser in qualifying Sergiy Stakhovsky 7-5 6-3

Nicolás Mahut defeated Stefanos Tsitsipas 7-5 7-6(4)

Second round 

Damir Dzumhur (7) defeated Thomas Fabbiano 6-7(5) 7-6(7) 7-6(5) in almost three hours of tennis

Lucas Pouille (3) defeated Pierre-Hugues Herbert 3-6 7-6(6) 6-4

Budapest was not to be denied its surprises and one was the defeat of sixth seed Aliaksandra Sasnovich by Petra Martic 3-6 6-4 6-4

Perhaps not a real upset as they are separated in the rankings by only nine spots.

Martic has now achieved a 3-1 head to head record over Sasnovich, but we can’t read too much into that as the first three battles were fought in 2014/15.

The other unexpected loss was suffered by fifth seed Mihaela Buzarnescu. 80th ranked Belgian Alison Van Uytvanck defeated the Romanian 6-1 6-0, converting 6 of 13 break points created, and winning 33 of 47 points in the “match”.

Other Budapest results:

First round completion

Dominika Cibulková (1) defeated wildcard Fanny Stollar 6-3 6-3

Kirsten Flipkens defeated Monica Niculescu 6-3 7-5

Tímea Babos (3) defeated Tatjana Maria 6-1 6-0

Qualifier Jana Cepelova defeated Carina Witthoeft 6-2 6-2

Shuai Zhang (2) defeated Arina Rodionova 6-3 6-2

Second round 

Lucky loser in qualifying Viktoria Kuzmova defeated Sabine Lisicki 6-2 6-4