Day 1 at the 2022 US Open saw plenty of exciting action and some incredible upsets, with two Top 10 seeds sent packing in completely stunning fashion. There were also quite a few five-set matches that were on the knife edge until the very end.
US Open Day 1 Recap
Who looked good
Nick Kyrgios didn’t concede a single break point in a potentially tricky opener against his friend and countryman Thanasi Kokkinakis. When his serve is firing, Kyrgios is a force to be reckoned with and so far it does seem to be firing. He might be able to follow up his Wimbledon final with another strong run here.
Andy Murray beat Francisco Cerundolo in straight sets and seems to have a good path for a run here. Given Murray’s struggles since his return to the tour, a quick first round match, against a seeded opponent no less, is a very good sign and he never looked in any danger.
Daniil Medvedev started his title defense with a very straightforward victory against Stefan Kozlov, dropping only six games and finishing with a bagel. While this result is far from surprising, it does show that Medvedev will once again be a very tough man to beat in New York. He looks headed for a blockbuster match against Nick Kyrgios in the fourth round.
Who looked bad
Stefanos Tsitsipas has never done well at the US Open, but he’s outdone himself this time, getting bageled and breadsticked on his way to losing to world #94 Diego Elahi Galan Riveros. While the Colombian played well above his ranking, Tsitsipas played at a shocking level and thus said goodbye to his hopes of both a first Slam title and the world #1 ranking.
Tsitsipas’s loss wasn’t even the biggest upset of the day, though, with Taylor Fritz losing against the world #303 Brandon Holt, who was a qualifying wild card and had only ever found success at Futures level. It is no exaggeration to claim that this is one of the most shocking Slam results of the century. Fritz was suitably disappointed after the match as he had hopes of fighting for a first Slam title and it all ended in the worst way possible.
Felix-Auger Aliassime might have won but his level was far from convincing and he wasn’t that far from being taken to 5 sets by the world #186 as he had to fend off a lot of break points. The good news for him is that he often starts slow in Slams, as he did in Paris earlier this year before giving Rafael Nadal his toughest match of the tournament.
Match of the day
Nuno Borges won his first ever Slam match, overcoming 19-year-old American Ben Shelton. The match lasted over 4 hours and it was incredibly close throughout. Borges took a 2-1 lead by winning two tiebreaks by the slightest margins and he then had a match point in the fourth set tiebreak, but Shelton saved it, won the set and looked to have the momentum heading into the 5th set. But it was Borges who had the superior fitness and managed to hold his nerve in the end. While neither player was ever likely to have a deep run here, this was a very high quality match, very intense, very even, and completely unpredictable until the end. Both are former (current in Shelton’s case) NCAA tennis standouts, and the match was a great endorsement for college tennis.
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