Alex de Minaur had to wait until the fourth day of the US Open to play his first match. Fifty minutes later, he was off court again.
New Yorkโs wet weather continues to wreak havoc with the tournamentโs first week as Australiaโs world No.7, who was supposed to start his campaign on Wednesday (AEST), frustratingly endured another rain delay after a lightning start to his clash with Italian qualifier Andrea Guerrieri.
De Minaur broke Guerrieri โ playing his first-ever grand slam main draw match at age 27 โ in the first game of each of the first two sets and appeared poised for a quick passage to the second round until weather intervened.
He led 6-2, 4-2 when the chair umpire suspended play as he bids to join fellow Australians Dane Sweeny, Tristan Schoolkate, Taylah Preston, Kim Birrell, Maya Joint, Alexei Popyrin and James Duckworth as a first-round winner.
However, 20-year-old wildcard Prestonโs US Open is now over, trounced 6-1, 6-1 in a mere 48 minutes by American Taylor Townsend in her second-round match.
Daria Kasatkina is also out, losing her rain-interrupted clash with Spainโs former world No.1 Paula Badosa that was carried over from the previous day.
Badosa was only two points from victory when the match was paused, and had to stave off two break-back points before clinching a 6-1, 5-4 win on her ninth match point to lock in a showdown with 2024 champion Coco Gauff.
Pushed out to Flushing Meadowsโ back blocks on court 11, after originally being scheduled on the bigger Grandstand stadium a day earlier, de Minaur did not have the fortune of playing on one of the eventโs two courts with a retractable roof.
The challenges for de Minaur will rise steeply, assuming he finishes the job against Guerrieri โ beginning in the second round with dangerous Dutchman Botic van de Zandschulp, who has already advanced in straight sets.
De Minaurโs projected rivals beyond that are 31st seed Zizou Bergs (third round), No.12 seed Rafael Jodar (fourth round) and top seed Alexander Zverev (quarter-finals), who needed almost five hours to battle past Italyโs Lorenzo Sonego in the first round.
Joint (against No.9 seed Elina Svitolina), Duckworth (Wu Yibing) and Birrell (18th seed Ekaterina Alexandrova) are all due to play their second-round matches on Thursday (AEST) as well.
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