Day 2 of the men’s tournament at the US Open saw the beginning of Novak Djokovic’s quest for the Calendar Grand Slam, with a four-set win over teenager Holger Rune. The Serb only needs six more wins now to complete this extraordinary feat.
US Open Men’s Day 2 Recap
On the plus side
Holger Rune might have lost but winning a set against the World #1 is an extraordinary achievement for the 18-year-old, who was playing a Grand Slam main draw for the first time. He wasn’t remotely close to winning the match and even winning a set was a bit lucky, but he showed signs of great talent and potential and he’ll surely be one to follow in the coming decade.
Alexander Zverev had a potentially tricky opening match against the big serving Sam Querrey, but it turned out to be extremely routine. The German lost only 14 serve points all match, faced no break points, and completely dominated the rallies, with Querrey struggling to win any points not kickstarted by a massive first serve. Zverev will certainly believe he can win his maiden Slam this fortnight, after narrowly losing last year’s final to Dominic Thiem.
Gael Monfils is slowly showing signs of returning to his previous level. After good runs in both Canada and Cincinnati, he began the US Open with a resounding win over Coria. It wasn’t exactly the toughest of opponents on this surface, but Monfils still showed some very promising signs.
Who looked bad
David Goffin notched his sixth consecutive loss as he got routined by McDonald without really putting up much of a fight. It’s true that the Belgian has been struggling with injuries but these are still worrying signs. That said, McDonald played very well and will be a very tough nut to crack for Kei Nishikori in the second round.
Alex De Minaur had a perfect 4-0 record against Taylor Fritz coming into this match, but he tasted defeat in this matchup for the first time with a very insipid performance that saw him get dominated by the young American all throughout. This result will see him go down significantly in the rankings, as he has reached the quarterfinals in 2020 and the last 16 in 2019.
Pablo Carreno Busta inexplicably lost from 2-0 up vs Maxime Cressy, failing to convert four match points in the deciding set tiebreak. Last year’s semifinalist (where he also lost from 2-0 up against Zverev) was powerless against Cressy’s serve, failing to create a single break point in the final three sets of the match. Cressy served 46 aces en route to the biggest win of his career to date. This was arguably the biggest upset of the tournament so far, with Carreno Busta the first Top 10 seed sent packing.
Main Photo from Getty.
