NEW YORK: Sixth seed Jannik Sinner earned a comfortable 6-4, 6-2, 6-4 win over Lorenzo Sonego in an all-Italian second-round clash at the US Open on Thursday while Briton Jack Draper upset 17th seed Hubert Hurkacz of Poland 6-2, 6-4, 7-5 to reach the third round.
Sinner next plays the winner of the match between Argentine Tomas Martin Etcheverry and Swiss Stan Wawrinka.
In the early women’s action, Katie Boulter edged out Chinese qualifier Yafan Wang 5-7, 6-1, 6-4 to advance to the third round where she will face American Peyton Stearns. Stearns advanced with an easy 6-3, 6-0 win against Dane Clara Tauson.
It was business as usual on Wednesday with Novak Djokovic and Iga Swiatek marching confidently into the third round but the day ended with a late run of shockers that saw Casper Ruud and Petra Kvitova dumped out of the tournament.
There were plenty of cheers rolling across the sprawling Billie Jean King National Tennis Center all day with Taylor Fritz and Frances Tiafoe moving on, as hopes of a homegrown winner continued to build.
But while results followed the form book for much of the day at the year’s final Grand Slam, shocks sprung up as the sun went down.
The biggest surprise was delivered by Zhang Zhizhen, who stunned last year’s runner-up and world number five Ruud 6-4, 5-7, 6-2, 0-6, 6-2 to became the first Chinese man to beat a top-five player since the introduction of the ATP rankings in 1973.
Zhang, 26, will next play Australian wild card Rinky Hijikata. No Chinese man has made the fourth round of a Grand Slam in the Open era.
At almost the same time Caroline Wozniacki was claiming the biggest win of her comeback — a 7-5, 7-6 (7/5) victory over 11th seed Kvitova.
Earlier, Swiss young gun Dominic Stricker delivered a shock by grinding out a 7-5, 6-7 (2/7), 6-7 (5/7), 7-6 (8/6), 6-3 win over Greek seventh seed Stefanos Tsitsipas for his first top-10 win.
Djokovic was prevented from playing in last year’s US Open due to being unvaccinated against Covid-19 but has looked right at home on Arthur Ashe Stadium court.
The Serb climbed through the gears against 76th-ranked Bernabe Zapata Miralles, winning 13 of the last 15 games to ease through 6-4, 6-1, 6-1 on Arthur Ashe Stadium court. Next up for Djokovic is compatriot and 32nd seed Laslo Djere.
Swiatek has also impressed but the defending champion was made to work for a 6-3, 6-4 win over Australian spark plug Daria Saville, who is fighting her way back to fitness from injury that has seen her ranking tumble to number 322. Swiatek will now play Slovenia’s Kaja Juvan on Friday for a place in the last 16.
Elena Rybakina, seeded fourth, received a walkover when Australian Ajla Tomljanovic withdrew from their night session clash because of injury.
Czech 10th seed and French Open finalist Karolina Muchova sailed past Magdalena Frech.
Former Australian Open runner-up Jennifer Brady — sidelined for two years by injury — took down 24th seed Magda Linette.
It has been 20 years and 78 Grand Slams since Andy Roddick won the 2003 US Open and hopes of an American man ending that drought have fallen largely on the shoulders of Tiafoe and Fritz.
Tiafoe did not shrink under the evening spotlight, the 10th seed downing Austrian Sebastian Ofner 6-3, 6-1, 6-4, before ninth seeded Fritz cruised past Peru’s Juan Pablo Varillas 6-1, 6-2, 6-2.
They were joined in the next round by Tommy Paul but only after the 14th seed battled back from two sets down to get past Russian Roman Safiullin 3-6, 2-6, 6-2, 6-4, 6-3.
Another American Ben Shelton also made it to the third round when Dominic Thiem retired with an undisclosed illness while 17-year-old Czech qualifier Jakub Mensik, ranked 206th, became the youngest man to reach the third round here since 1990.
Published in Dawn, September 1st, 2023