Keys joins US seeds exiting Madrid

In Madrid, two men’s first round matches were played while qualifying continued.

Comprehensive victories for Richard Gasquet over Tomas Berdych (14) 6-4 6-2, and Denis Shapovalov over Tennys Sandgren 6-1 6-4.

The woman’s first round was finalised, and not without some upsets.

Following the exits of Ostapenko and V Williams from the day before, the tournament lost Madison Keys (13). The big hitting American was surprised by wildcard Sara Sorribes Tormo 7-5 6-2.

Three of the four American seeded players are gone first up, leaving just Sloane Stephens (9) as the best shot at winning the event for the US.

Samantha Stosur is playing her best tennis for the year, and no shock that it is coming on the clay, where she feels most comfortable.  Her win over Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 6-1 6-7(2) 6-3 was creditable but unfortunately she now faces Sloane Stephens in a tough second round encounter.

Another former Grand Slam winner (dual) Vika Azarenka, has come back to the tour after a semi final performance in Miami in March.  She impressed, defeating Aleksandra Krunic 6-3 6-3.  Her next challenge will be Karolina Pliskova (6), the Stuttgart title winner from a fortnight ago. Azarenka beat Karolina in the Miami quarter finals, but Madrid is not played on a hard court, so poses more difficulties for Vika.

Johanna Konta has had a rough year, her record 8-8 before Madrid, and not having played a tour match since the start of April where she lost in the opening round in Charleston to Fanny Stollar, ranked 219.

Konta’s world ranking has slipped accordingly to 23, and she was desperate to post a first win in Madrid.

In a match full of struggle she managed to prevail over Magdalena Rybarikova (16).

Maria Sharapova displayed some of her brightest in eliminating last weeks Prague finalist Mihaela Buzarnescu 6-4 6-1

Seeds that showed spark in their initial workouts included:

Simona Halep (1) who was ruthless in her demolition of Ekaterina Makarova  6-1 6-0.  Makarova failed to hold serve in the entire match, the only game won was a break of the Halep serve.

Caroline Wozniacki (2) who dispatched Dasha Gavrilova neatly 6-3 6-1

Garbine Muguruza (3), whose power ultimately proved too much for a resilient Shuai Peng 6-4 6-2

Petra Kvitova (10), fresh from her Prague success, showed little mercy in crushing Lesia Tsurenko 6-1 6-2

The mens match to watch tomorrow has to be the first round battle between Novak Djokovic (10) and unseeded Kei Nishikori.  A horror draw for Novak but he can rise to these occasions.

For the two Australian women left, not much fun awaits.

Ash Barty, who narrowly avoided a seeding, faces second seed Caroline Wozniacki, while Samantha Stosur has to deal with reigning US Open champion Sloane Stephens (9).