It was enterprise as regular on the U.S. Open on Wednesday with Novak Djokovic and Iga Swiatek marching confidently into the third spherical however the day ended with a late run of shockers that noticed Casper Ruud and Petra Kvitova dumped out of the event.
There have been loads of cheers rolling throughout the sprawling Billie Jean King National Tennis Center all day with Coco Gauff, Taylor Fritz and Frances Tiafoe shifting on, as hopes of a homegrown winner continued to construct.
But whereas outcomes adopted the shape e-book for a lot of the day on the yr’s remaining Grand Slam, shocks sprung up because the solar went down.
The largest shock was delivered by Zhang Zhizhen, who shocked final yr’s runner-up and world quantity 5 Ruud 6-4 5-7 6-2 0-6 6-2 to grew to become the primary Chinese man to beat a top-five participant for the reason that introduction of the ATP rankings in 1973.
At virtually the identical time Caroline Wozniacki was claiming the largest win of her comeback – a 7-5 7-6(5) victory over eleventh seed Kvitova.
Earlier, Swiss younger gun Dominic Stricker delivered a shock by grinding out a 7-5 6-7(2) 6-7(5) 7-6(6) 6-3 win over Greek seventh seed Stefanos Tsitsipas for his first top-10 win.
Djokovic was prevented from taking part in in final yr’s U.S. Open as a result of being unvaccinated in opposition to COVID-19 however has seemed proper at dwelling on Arthur Ashe Stadium court docket.
A nine-times finalist at Flushing Meadows, the Serb was in ruthless type as he rolled to a second straight dominating win, brushing apart Spain’s Bernabe Zapata Miralles 6-4 6-1 6-1.
Djokovic stays on the right track for a fourth U.S. Open title that may pull him stage with Margaret Court’s file haul of 24 Grand Slams.
Swiatek has additionally impressed however the defending champion was made to work for a 6-3 6-4 win over Australian spark plug Daria Saville, who’s combating her manner again to health from damage that has seen her rating tumble to quantity 322.
Wozniacki, twice a finalist at Flushing Meadows, was again on the stage she has graced so many instances in opposition to a well-known foe in entrance of an adoring crowd underneath the Arthur Ashe Stadium lights.
Having retired in 2020 to boost a household and taking part in in simply her third occasion since her return, Wozniacki turned again the clock to come back out on high within the battle of 33-year-old Grand Slam champions.
The final time Wozniacki beat a high 20 ranked participant was on the 2018 WTA Finals when she took down then world quantity 5 Kvitova and their fifteenth profession assembly ended with the identical consequence.
“I’m just so thrilled to have an opportunity to play out on Arthur Ashe Stadium,” stated Wozniacki. “Three years ago if you’d asked me, I didn’t think I was ever going to play on one of those courts again in the U.S. Open, especially a night session.
“It simply feels fairly unbelievable to be on the market and profitable a match like that.”
Sixth seed Gauff warmed up the house crowd early when {the teenager} beat Mirra Andreeva 6-3 6-3, earlier than handing the baton to the U.S. males.
It has been 20 years and 78 Grand Slams since Andy Roddick received the 2003 U.S. Open and hopes of an American man ending that drought have fallen largely on the shoulders of Tiafoe and Fritz.
Tiafoe didn’t shrink underneath the night highlight, the tenth seed downing Austrian Sebastian Ofner 6-3 6-1 6-4, earlier than ninth seeded Fritz cruised previous Peru’s Juan Pablo Varillas 6-1 6-2 6-2.
They have been joined within the subsequent spherical by Tommy Paul however solely after the 14th seed battled again from two units right down to get previous Russian Roman Safiullin 3-6 2-6 6-2 6-4 6-3.
Another American Ben Shelton additionally made it to the third spherical when Dominic Thiem retired with an undisclosed sickness.
Thiem left the court docket after dropping the primary set tie-break however when the Austrian returned he doubled over on the internet and commenced gagging, calling for the physician and forfeiting the match.