Washington D.C.
Not since 2015 has the defending Women’s champion at the Citi Open in Washington D.C. won a her first round match the following year. That streak continued on Tuesday. Fourth seed Ekaterina Makarova won just 4 of her 23 second serve points and was broken four times losing 7-6 6-3 to Romanian Ana Bogdan. Bogdan, ranked 87th in the World, had lost her last two first round matches while Makarova hadn’t played since losing in the fourth round at Wimbledon. The match lasted an hour and 32 minutes and certainly wasn’t one Makarova will put anywhere near her resume. The Russian had moved up to 30th in the World rankings, her highest spot since the start of the 2017 campaign. Bogdan will now face veteran Svetlana Kuznetsova in the next round. Kuznetsova was the last defending Women’s champion to win a first round match the following year.
@Sportshorn
