NEW HAVEN, Conn. (AP) — Petra Kvitova‘s final tuneup for the U.S. Open ended with a 6-2, 6-1 loss to Shuai Zhang of China in the first round of the Connecticut Open on Monday night.
Kvitova, a two-time Wimbledon champion and a three-time champion in New Haven, is just 4-4 on hard courts this season. The Czech player returned to the tour at the French Open in May after she was stabbed during a home invasion in December, leaving her dominant left hand seriously injured.
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Zhang, ranked 29th, was playing her first match in the United States since April.
“I just arrived in New Haven last night, coming straight from China,” she said. “It’s a big change. It’s 12 hours’ time difference. Before the match I was still sleeping.”
Earlier Monday, Canadian Eugenie Bouchard breezed past higher-ranked American Lauren Davis 6-3, 6-1. Bouchard, a wild-card entry, next faces top-seeded Agnieszka Radwanska.
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Bouchard, who reached a career-best No. 5 in the rankings in 2014, has struggled recently, slipping to 74th.
In other matches, Kirsten Flipkens of Belgium beat Lesia Tsurenko of Ukraine 6-2, 6-3, and Romania’s Ana Bogdan got past Russia’s Elena Vesnina, 7-5, 7-5.
The U.S. Open begins Aug. 28.
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