Iga Swiatek opened her US Open title defense with a stunning first-round victory at Flushing Meadows, knocking out eighth seed Maria Sakkari.

Swiatek cruised to a 6-0, 6-1 victory over Sweden’s Rebecca Peterson in 58 minutes.

Sakkari had a bad day on Court 17 as she was defeated by world number 71 Rebeka Masarova of Spain.

The Greek took a 4-1 lead in the first set, but Masarova came back to win 6-4, 6-4.

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Swiatek has won both of their previous clashes with world number 86 Peterson and came out on top on Arthur Ashe Stadium.

In the second round, the 22-year-old Pole will face Daria Saville of Australia, who is vying for her sixth Grand Slam title.

“I wanted to start the tournament with everything I was focusing on,” Swiatek explained. I was relieved to have played a great game despite the pressure and expectations.

“I feel like everything going on around us is distracting us from what we want to achieve with our games and careers.”

“I’d like to remind myself that I want to grow as a player.” Numbers and statistics don’t matter to me. I’m just concentrating on my performance.”

Other seeded players had easy victories on the first day.

In their encounter at the Louis Armstrong Stadium, Victoria Azarenka easily defeated Frenchwoman Fiona Ferro.

The 18th seed, who reached the US Open final in 2012, 2013, and 2020, defeated the world 190 in straight sets, 6-1, 6-2.

In other results, Czech 10th seed Karolina Muchova defeated Australian Storm Sanders 6-4 6-0, while Swiss 15th seed Belinda Bencic defeated Kamilla Rakhimova 6-2 6-4.