British No. 1 Andy Murray can now look beyond a certain Nick Kyrgios, who he has now won for a fourth straight meeting.
And the women’s seeds keep falling at the US Open, with No. 6 seed Lucie Safarova becoming the next casualty on a warm afternoon at Flushing Meadows.
Vintage Roger Federer cruised into the round of 64 as Lleyton Hewitt – playing in his last US Open – rolled back his good-old number-one days to advance.
All members of the men’s Top 10 are comfortably through to the fourth day of this year’s championship, though 11th seeded Gilles Simons was sent packing by American Donald Young in a gripping five-setter encounter.
Murray on the move, Federer fired up
Federer continued his flawless US Open first round affair by dominating Leonardo Mayer 6-1 6-2 6-2 on Tuesday.
The 34-year-old closed out the contest after a routine third set to improve to 16-0 in first-round matches in New York.
Awaiting Federer in the second round is Steve Darcis, who defeated Marcos Baghdatis – the latter Cyprian retired while trailing 7-6(7-2) 3-6 2-6 1-3…
Murray continued his dominance over Kyrgios with a 7-5 6-3 4-6 6-1 win to set a round-of-64 clash with Frenchman Adrian Mannarino.
The most anticipated first round match-up between Murray and Aussie ‘bad boy’ Kyrgios was not spared of some suspense, especially with the Scot allowing the 20-year-old Canberra native drag on for too long in what could have been a routine first set win.
The 3rd seed broke for a 4-2 lead in the second set, but Kyrgios, with a chance to break right back in the ensuing game chose to impress the Arthur Ashe Stadium crowd with a between-the-leg volley that sailed wide while he could have blasted a winner down the line – hence he lost his plot to tie the match.
He however converted 2 out of five break point opportunities presented by Murray to take the third set, but returned after a long break to hand out the first two games of the fourth period as Murray closed out the match in two hours and 42 minutes.
The win is expected to intensify the Dunblane native’s bid for a second US Open title when Mannarino comes calling in the second round. The Frenchman saw off Russia’s Konstantin Kravchuk 6-7(6-8) 4-6 1-6.
Last year’s semi-finalist Stan Wawrinka saw off Albert Ramos-Vinolas 7-5 6-4 7-6(8-6) in an unconvincing fashion in Louis Armstrong Stadium earlier on Tuesday.
South Africa’s Kevin Anderson staved off an upset ploy by No. 198 Andrey Rublev of Russia to top a 7-6 6-7 7-5 6-3 win.
Seeds falling in women’s singles
6th seed Safarova was headed for the airport within hours of starting her campaign in New York after suffering a 6-4 6-1 defeat by Lesia Tsurenko in Louis Armstrong Stadium.
The 2015 French Open finalist’s 33 to 10 unforced errors to winners differentials was too meager in comparison to Ukraine’s Tsurenko’s 15 to 12.
Awaiting Tsurenko is the USA’s Varvara Lepchenko, who defeated Belgian Kirsten Flipkens 6-1 6-1.
Moreover, there was victory for second seed Simona Halep, No. 4 seed Caroline Wozniacki, fifth seed Petra Kvitova, ninth seed Garbine Muguruza, 11th seed Angelique Kerber and the 20th-seeded Victoria Azarenka on Tuesday.
Romanian Halep, 23, was too hot for No. 99 ranked Marina Erakovic, who retired while trailing 6-2 3-0 in Arthur Ashe Stadium.
Two-time runner-up, Azarenka, saw off No. 56 ranked Czech, Lucie Hradecka 6-1 6-2 in just over an hour, as Caroline Wozniacki proved too much for wild card Jamie Loeb in a 6-2 6-0 flourish.
Spaniard Muguruza dispatched Carina Witthoeft 6-2 6-4 and Angelique Kerber put paid to Alexandra Dugheru’s ambitions in a rather labored 6-3 6-1 win.
Men’s Singles – First Round (Tuesday)
[2] Roger Federer (SUI) d. Leonardo Mayer (ARG) 61 62 62[3] Andy Murray (GBR) d. Nick Kyrgios (AUS) 75 63 46 61
[5] Stan Wawrinka (SUI) d. Albert Ramos-Vinolas (ESP) 75 64 76(6)
[6] Tomas Berdych (CZE) d. Bjorn Fratangelo (USA) 63 62 64
Donald Young (USA) d. [11] Gilles Simon (FRA) 26 46 64 64 64
[12] Richard Gasquet (FRA) d. Thanasi Kokkinakis (AUS) 46 61 46 63 20 ret.
[13] John Isner (USA) d. Malek Jaziri (TUN) 62 63 64
[15] Kevin Anderson (RSA) d. Andrey Rublev (RUS) 76(1) 67(5) 75 63
[20] Dominic Thiem (AUT) d. Daniel Gimeno-Traver (ESP) 75 63 75
[21] Ivo Karlovic (CRO) d. Federico Delbonis (ARG) 63 75 75
[22] Viktor Troicki (SRB) d. Frances Tiafoe (USA) 75 64 63
[24] Bernard Tomic (AUS) d. Damir Dzumhur (BIH) 57 76(4) 64 63
[28] Jack Sock (USA) d. Victor Estrella Burgos (DOM) 62 63 62
[29] Philipp Kohlschreiber (GER) d. Alexander Zverev (GER) 67(0) 62 60 26 64
[30] Thomaz Bellucci (BRA) d. James Ward (GBR) 61 75 63
[31] Guillermo Garcia-Lopez (ESP) d. Janko Tipsarevic (SRB) 76(4) 46 46 63 61
Jurgen Melzer (AUT) d. Denis Kudla (USA) 63 75 61
Lukas Rosol (CZE) d. Jared Donaldson (USA) 76(7) 60 76(4)
Austin Krajicek (USA) d. Santiago Giraldo (COL) 36 76(6) 76(6) 76(1)
Rajeev Ram (USA) d. Ryan Harrison (USA) 76(3) 64 61
Steve Darcis (BEL) d. Marcos Baghdatis (CYP) 67(2) 63 62 31 ret.
Mikhail Youzhny (RUS) d. John-Patrick Smith (AUS) 61 36 75 76(4)
Adrian Mannarino (FRA) d. Konstantin Kravchuk (RUS) 76(6) 64 61
Lleyton Hewitt (AUS) d. Aleksandr Nedovyesov (KAZ) 60 76(2) 10 ret.
Jiri Vesely (CZE) d. Paolo Lorenzi (ITA) 64 64 64
Ruben Bemelmans (BEL) d. Gilles Muller (LUX) 64 16 64 64
Aljaz Bedene (GBR) d. Ernests Gulbis (LAT) 36 64 30 ret.
Robin Haase (NED) d. Dustin Brown (GER) 46 46 63 75 64
Denis Istomin (UZB) d. Benjamin Becker (GER) 67(9) 64 64 61
Yoshihito Nishioka (JPN) d. Paul-Henri Mathieu (FRA) 64 26 67(7) 61 62
Hyeon Chung (KOR) d. James Duckworth (AUS) 63 61 62
Nicolas Mahut (FRA) d. Sam Querrey (USA) 75 76(6) 75
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