NEW YORK: Australian Open winner Stan Wawrinka and French Open champion Maria Sharapova survived some shaky moments on Wednesday to book their third-round berths at the US Open.

Second round action began with a shock and ended with some late-night drama as men’s third seed Wawrinka barked at fans before shouting for joy at his 6-3, 6-4, 3-6, 7-6 (7-1) win over Thomaz Bellucci.

The day got off to an explosive start with Chinese doubles specialist Peng Shuai upsetting fourth-seeded Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland 6-3, 6-4 and finished under the floodlights in the early morning hours with Wawrinka losing his cool and snapping at the rowdy crowd before escaping with a testy win.

As the match stretched past midnight, Wawrinka got into a tiff with a spectator, saying: “Shut up, man! Seriously, shut up.”

Sharapova found herself down by a set and facing a break point early in the second at Flushing Meadows, bothered by the whipping wind, her own off-target strokes and an opponent who wasn’t backing down.

As dusk fell and the Arthur Ashe Stadium lights came on, Sharapova came through the way she so often does in the crucible of a third set, beating 95th-ranked Alexandra Dulgheru of Romania 4-6, 6-3, 6-2 after two hours and 26 minutes on court.

By contrast, Peng, half of this year’s French Open women’s doubles winning pair, quietly went about her business, taking 96-minutes on a sun-baked Louis Armstrong Stadium court to claim the biggest scalp of the tournament so far.

Radwanska, winner of the Montreal hardcourt tune-up to the US Open and a semi-finalist at this year’s Australian Open, saved a match point in the ninth game to hold serve for 5-4 and fended off another in the next to briefly delay the upset.

“I had two match points and didn’t make it,” said Peng, who has 16 career doubles wins and in February became the first Chinese player to be ranked as a world number one in tennis. “But I just said ‘fight, fight’ and it’s an amazing time for me.”

World number two Simona Halep of Romania beat the heat by hurrying past Jana Cepelova of Slovakia 6-2, 6-1 while Venus Williams, the 2000-01 champion in New York, advanced with a 6-1, 6-4 victory over 78th-ranked Timea Bacsinszky at night.

Sixth-seeded German Angelique Kerber also advanced on cue, downing Russian Alla Kudryavtseva 6-2, 6-4 but 21st-seeded Sloane Stephens of the US had her earliest exit at the US Open, eliminated 5-7, 6-4, 6-2 by 96th-ranked Johanna Larsson of Sweden.

Others advancing include ninth-seeded Serb Jelena Jankovic and 10th-seeded former world number one Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark.

Most of Wednesday’s men’s action was wrapping up the first round, and the exits of Steve Johnson and Ryan Harrison meant just three American men reached the second round — the fewest in US Open history.

Men’s sixth-seed Tomas Berdych of Czech Republic brought Lleyton Hewitt’s 62nd Grand Slam appearance to a quick end, downing the former world number one, and 2001 champion, 6-3, 6-4, 6-3.

Seventh-seeded Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov finally ended his US Open jinx. After coming up empty in three straight appearances, he defeated US wildcard Harrison 6-2, 7-6 (7-4), 6-2.

South African Kevin Anderson rallied from a break down in the final set to defeat Uruguay’s Pablo Cuevas 6-3, 6-7 (3-7), 4-6, 6-2, 7-6 (7-1) in just over four hours.

But three men’s matches were cut short by injury retirements.

Wimbledon quarter-finalist Marin Cilic of Croatia advanced when a right ankle injury forced Cypriot Marcos Baghdatis to retire while trailing 6-3, 3-1.

Spain’s Feliciano Lopez advanced when Croatian Ivan Dodig retired with cramping and muscle cramps also left Johnson unable to continue against Japan’s Tatsuma Ito.

After three days of action, the men’s tournament has yet to have a significant surprise, and the only seeded players to lose Wednesday were No 27 Santiago Giraldo of Colombia and No 30 Jeremy Chardy of France.

The man who beat Chardy, 92nd-ranked Blaz Kavcic of Slovenia, now faces Wawrinka.

Published in Dawn, August 29th, 2014