Wednesday 30 July 2014 07:38, UK
British No 1 Heather Watson suffered a first-round exit at the Citi Open in Washington DC as she lost in three sets to Kirsten Flipkens.
In a topsy-turvy contest, Watson lost the first set 6-3 but came roaring back to take the second 6-1 and the match to a decider.
The final set went to a tie-break and it was Belgian Flipkens, ranked nine places higher than Watson at 47 in the world, who claimed it 7-6 (7/3) to seal victory in two hours and one minute. Flipkens will next face Svetlana Kuznetsova in the second round.
Elsewhere the women's draw, top seed Lucie Safarova lost her first-round match against Frenchwoman Kristina Mladenovic.
Czech world No 17 Safarova appeared to be cruising into the second round after taking the first set 6-2, but Mladenovic hit back to take the next two sets to secure a 2-6 6-3 6-3 victory.
Second seed Ekaterina Makarova had no such difficulty against Slovakia's Magdalena Rybarikova, the Russian winning 6-1 6-1 in 52 minutes.
Russian fourth seed Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova beat Virginie Razzano of France 6-2 6-2, but American fifth seed Sloane Stephens was beaten 6-4 4-6 6-0 by compatriot Christina McHale.
The other matches saw Serbian Bojana Jovanovski beat Australian qualifier Olivia Rogowska and New Zealander Marina Erakovic triumph against Czech Kristyna Pliskova.
Kevin Anderson became the first man through to the third round of the Citi Open after a straightforward victory over Evgeny Donskoy.
The South African seventh seed won their second-round encounter 6-3 6-4 and will take on Malek Jaziri for a place in the quarter-finals.
Ninth seed Ivo Karlovic earned a hard-fought victory against Frenchman Benoit Paire to also move into the third round.
The 35-year-old Croatian took two hours and 25 minutes to clinch a 7-6 (7/5) 6-7 (11/13) 7-6 (7/2) victory.
Radek Stepanek was beaten by Jaziri in a thrilling second-round match that swung one way, then the other. Czech eleventh seed Stepanek comfortably took the first set 6-2, but his Tunisian opponent won the next two to clinch a 2-6 7-6 (7/3) 6-1 win.
Fourteenth seed Lleyton Hewitt overcame compatriot Marinko Matosevic in straight sets to reach the third round. The two-time grand slam singles winner won 6-4 6-2 in one hour and 22 minutes to potentially set up a showdown with second seed Milos Raonic.
Joining Anderson, Karlovic, Jaziri and Hewitt in the third round is 15th seed Denis Istomin, who overcame in-form Australian Bernard Tomic.
Istomin triumphed 6-4 7-6 (8/6) and faces 17th seed Julien Benneteau or Donald Young in the next round. Sixteenth seed Lu Yen-hsun crashed out of the tournament, losing 6-1 6-4 to Lukas Lacko.
There were also victories for American trio Sam Querrey, Steve Johnson and Jack Sock, Germany's Benjamin Becker, Israeli Dudi Sela and Dominican Republic's Victor Estrella Burgos as the first-round matches concluded on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, Jamie Murray and John Peers lost their first-round men's doubles match against Jonathan Erlich and Rajeev Ram 6-3 6-4.
