Photo by Mike Frey/BPI/REX/Shutterstock (9029809v) On Tuesday we witnessed another major upset at US Open 2017. Last year's US Open Women's Singles champion, Germany's Angelique Kerber has ended her journey to defend the title by being eliminated in the first round by Japan's Naomi Osaka. On the WTA World Ranking, Kerber is ranked 6th but is on her way out of the top 10 for sure while Osaka is currently ranked 45th and will see an improvement in her ranking after US Open is completed. Kerber is the first defending champion in the last 12 years to be eliminated so early. Something like this didn't happen since 2005 when Svetlana Kuznetsova lost to Ekaterina Bychkova.
Majority of the matches on Tuesday were canceled because of the rain but the match between Kerber and Osaka was completed. It probably helped that the Japanese tennis player was swift and finished the job in 2 sets beating Kerber 6-3, 6-1. Kerber looked powerless while Osaka strolled through their 65-minutes match.This was also the first time that Osaka has managed to beat a top 10 tennis player.Compared to the last year, when she was number one ranked female tennis player in the world, 2017 isn't shaping well for Angelique Kerber. In 2016, besides US Open, she won the Australian Open as well and even managed to reach Wimbledon final. This year, Kerber suffered multiple blows, including elimination from the French Open where she was No. 1 seed. That was the first time in the tournament's history that No. 1 seeded player was eliminated in the first round.Now, 4 out of the top 10 seeded tennis players in woman's singles are out of the US Open. The 9th seeded Venus Williams is pregnant and doesn't participate in the tournament. The 2nd seeded Simona Halep was eliminated by Maria Sharapova while 7th seeded Johanna Konta suffered a defeat in her match against WTA 78th ranked Aleksandra Krunic.
