The second round at the US Open didn’t see nearly as many upsets in the top half of the draw as the first round, but it still featured a number of exciting matches, including some very tight five setters. All of the tournament favorites still remain in the draw after this second round.
US Open Day 3 Recap
Who looked good
Daniil Medvedev eased past Arthur Rinderknech without getting broken all matches and thus continues his title defense. Medvedev looked rock solid throughout and will be very tough to defeat again this fortnight.
After dropping the first set to an inspired Nava, Andy Murray cruised through the final three sets dropping only four games on his way to booking a third round meeting with Matteo Berrettini. The Scot is showing some very fine form so far in the tournament and if he manages to beat a seemingly out of sorts Berrettini he could dream of a very deep run here in New York.
Jack Draper continues to make impressive progress and notched the biggest win of his career in emphatic fashion against Felix Auger-Aliassime. Draper had achieved his first top 10 career win in Canada against Stefanos Tsitsipas and he got a second one here against a man who had reached the semifinals last year. Draper was untouchable on serve, not getting broken a single time, and dominant in rallies. It’s fair to say he’s the favorite going into his third round match with Karen Khachanov.
Who looked bad
While Draper deserves a lot of credit, Auger-Aliassime failed to live up to expectations yet again. Outside of his serve, he was powerless against Draper, not getting any looks on return and getting dominated off the ground all throughout. What was expected to be the season where Aliassime established himself as a true Slam contender ended up being a massive disappointment for him.
Despite making it through to the third round, Matteo Berrettini struggled massively against Hugo Grenier and could have easily been eliminated. The Italian has struggled on the North American hard courts this summer and has been extremely reliant on his serve. Judging from what we’ve seen so far, he’ll have his hands full against Murray in the next round.
Khachanov also won his match, but he still looks nowhere near the player he looked like he could become in late 2018 when he beat Novak Djokovic to win the Paris Masters. He should be able to easily dispatch an opponent like Thiago Monteiro on a hard court, but the Russian struggled throughout. He has a decent draw here but it doesn’t look likely that he’ll have a Grand Slam level breakthrough the way he’s playing.
Match of the day
Wu Yibing and Nuno Borges played an incredible five setter that ended up with Wu becoming the first Chinese player ever to reach the third round of the US Open and the third round of any Slam since 1946. There was pretty much nothing to separate both players, who went toe to toe for almost four hours; all five sets could have gone either way but in the end it was Borges who left the court frustrated and Wu who made history for Chinese tennis and booked a third round encounter with the world #1 Daniil Medvedev.
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