Nine men’s singles matches started with player introductions at 11:00 AM on Monday at the US Open. Six of the higher ranked players advanced to the second round. Only a resurgent Andy Murray, former-Ohio State star J.J. Wolf and world #203 Emilio Nava defeated higher ranked players.
US Open Day 1
Five Setters
Despite holding higher rankings, Tim van Rijthoven and Tommy Paul both needed five sets to advance. Ranked #117, van Rijthoven won his fourth career Grand Slam singles match. He defeated #137 Zhizhen Zhang after being down 2-1 after the first three sets. Likewise 29th seeded Tommy Paul, who has had a good summer, needed a comeback from 2-1 down to move past Bernabe Zapata Miralles. He will hope for an improved performance in the second round.
Easier Ones
Sebastian Korda, Arthur Rinderknech, and Alejandro Tabilo each advanced in four sets. Korda and Rinderknech dropped the first set before turning their matches around against Facundo Bagnis and Quentin Halys respectively whilst Tabilo lost the third set before closing out Kamil Majchrzak 6-1 in the fourth. Rinderknech’s reward for beating his countryman is to play world #1 and defending champion Daniil Medvedev in the second round
The Upsets
In the three 11:00 AM matches won by lower ranked players, two can be considered upsets. World #87 Wolf won only his 10th career tour level match. The young American sent 16th seed Roberto Bautista Agut packing in three tight sets, 6-4 6-4 6-4.
Emilio Nava won his first ever Grand Slam match when he took the fifth set against John Millman who is ranked 100 places above him. Technically, Murray currently holds a ranking below Francisco Cerundolo, but, he is Andy Murray. He may no longer be the player he was when he won this event in 2012, but he looked sharp in taking out the #24 seeded Cerundolo in three sets.
Six, and if you count Murray, seven players out of nine who were expected to win took their matches in the affairs that started on Monday morning. Many matches to go, but the numbers show these guys are favoured for a reason. That is often the case in best-of-five Grand Slam men’s singles matches.
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