Sofia Kenin and Dominic Thiem were the highest seeds to progress on a day of often surprising results at the US Open.
Seeded No.2 in their respective draws, Kenin and Thiem progressed to round three on Thursday following straight-sets wins, yet in-form seeds Johanna Konta and Milos Raonic, plus two-time major champion Garbine Muguruza, crashed out in the second round.
In the evening, Serena Williams set up a third-round meeting with Sloane Stephens, No.3 seed Daniil Medvedev and Victoria Azarenka continued their progress, while Andy Murray’s run came to an end.
Serena through, Murray out
Murray was on the receiving end of a masterful display from No.15 seed Felix Auger-Aliassime, who bullied the former world No.1 about Arthur Ashe Stadium to win 6-2 6-3 6-4.
Auger-Aliassime had lost his last three Slam matches entering the US Open, and had never beaten a top-80 opponent at a major, yet crushed 52 winners – including 24 aces – to Murray’s nine to end the three-time Grand Slam champion’s inspiring comeback.
In the match prior on Ashe, Williams subdued Margarita Gasparyan 6-2 6-4 for her second consecutive straight-sets win in New York.
The third seed’s triumph sets up her first meeting with Stephens in five years, after the 2017 US Open champion beat Olga Govortsova 6-2 6-2 to notch back-to-back wins for the first time since Wuhan last year.
In night matches at Louis Armstrong Stadium, last year’s finalist Medvedev returned to the third round with a straight-sets win over Australian Chris O’Connell before Azarenka extended her winning streak to seven with a commanding 6-1 6-3 win over fifth seed Aryna Sabalenka.
Kenin continues to cruise
Reigning Australian Open champion Kenin was a 6-4 6-3 winner over dangerous Canadian lefty Leylah Fernandez in the first match of the day on Ashe.
The American has dropped just 11 games en route to the third round, where she will face talented Tunisian Ons Jabeur in a rematch of their AO 2020 quarterfinal.
Jabeur, seeded 27th, overcame big-hitting Estonian Kaia Kanepi in straight sets.
Elsewhere, No.15 seed Maria Sakkari recovered from the loss of the first set to beat Bernarda Pera, a result setting up a third-round meeting with 22nd seed Amanda Anisimova, a three-set winner over fellow American Katrina Scott.
Fellow seeds Donna Vekic (18), Karolina Muchova (20) and Sloane Stephens (26) – the latter a US Open champion three years ago – were straight sets winners.
Terrific Thiem
Following Kenin onto Ashe was Thiem, who celebrated his 27th birthday with a 6-3 6-3 6-2 win over Sumit Nagal in under two hours.
After a shocking 6-2 6-1 loss to Filip Krajinovic at last week’s Western & Southern Open, Thiem appears to be growing in comfort on the quick Flushing Meadows hard courts.
The Australian Open finalist will be thankful for that, given his next test is a third-round meeting with 2014 US Open champion Marin Cilic, the No.31 seed who beat Slovak Norbert Gombos in four.
Also progressing were last year’s US Open semifinalist Matteo Berrettini – a straight-sets winner over Ugo Humbert – and Aussie No.21 seed Alex de Minaur, who beat former top-10 star Richard Gasquet.
AROUND.
— US Open Tennis (@usopen) September 3, 2020
THE.
NET.
Matteo Berrettini, you are a BAAAAAD MAN! ? ? pic.twitter.com/SE3taXsQN9
Russians Andrey Rublev and Karen Khachanov sealed their places in the last 32 with straight-sets wins, as did No.8 seed Roberto Bautista Agut, a 6-3 3-6 6-3 6-4 victor over Miomir Kecmanovic.
Upset of the day
Bautista Agut next faces 94th-ranked Vasek Pospisil, who stunned fellow Canadian Roanic.
Former world No.3 Raonic, in brilliant form following his run to the Western & Southern Open final, was unable to halt his surging countryman, who won 6-7(1) 6-3 7-6(4) 6-3.
Equally surprising was ninth seed Johanna Konta’s defeat to Sorana Cirstea.
The Brit, a semifinalist at the Western & Southern Open last week, led by a set and a break before falling to a 2-6 7-6(5) 6-4 defeat.
Muguruza, the 10th seed and this year’s Australian Open finalist, fell 7-5 6-3 to Tsvetana Pironkova, the Bulgarian who is playing her first tournament since Wimbledon 2017 after becoming a mother.
Was thinking that Muguruza hadn't played a match in 6 months entering the USO.
— Ravi Ubha (@raviubha) September 3, 2020
But then remembered that Pironkova had not played one for 3 years.
Quotes of the day
"Life is funny, because I came in 2011 as a kid, I got tickets for a match and I watched Andy Murray and (Feliciano) Lopez playing third round here. So it's crazy that, nine years later, I'm here playing him and getting the win."
- Felix Auger-Aliassime
“She's a great player. You can't win a Grand Slam and not be really, really, really, really, really good. Wow, it's a lot. I have a lot of things that I need to go home and focus on and do to get ready for that.”
- Serena Williams on facing Sloane Stephens in the third round.
“I've lost some heartbreakers here at the Open. Yeah, man. I didn't even think about that. I lost some heartbreakers. It was nice to get over the line here in New York.”
- Frances Tiafoe, beat John Millman to reach the third round – his first five-set win in New York after previous five-sets losses to Isner, Federer and Zverev.
“I’m getting a lot of memories from the juniors when my Dad was with me, and I had a match just like this; I was down, and then he was saying some encouraging words, so that really helped me. I was just thinking about him the whole time and it was just giving me a lot of energy to pump me up and keep myself going.”
- Amanda Anisimova, whose father Konstantin died in August 2019, after winning her second-round match 4-6 6-4 6-1.
“I know if there were fans it would be so lit, and I'm kind of sad that we're not playing in front of fans because it would be so fun.”
- Sloane Stephens, on her third-round match against Serena Williams.
Tweet of the day
Keep moving forward ? R3
— Karen Khachanov (@karenkhachanov) September 3, 2020
Not easy to play against a friend Andrey Kuznetsov especially after he was out for 2.5 years with injuries!
Hope he will return to high level soon! pic.twitter.com/cTExTxhFIw
Good luck, my friend ?????? pic.twitter.com/xG36FxMGE1
— Karen Khachanov (@karenkhachanov) September 3, 2020
Stat of the day
Incredibly, against one of the game’s finest returners, Auger-Aliassime did not face a break point in his commanding victory over Murray.
His win makes him the third Canadian – after Denis Shapovalov and Pospisil – into the third round of the men’s draw, the first time in the Open Era that three Canadian men have progressed to the last 32 at the same Slam.
Earlier, Pospisil’s victory over Raonic was helped by an incredibly aggressive mindset, with the 30-year-old winning 27 of his 30 points at the net.
Raonic is yet to go beyond the fourth round in New York in eight visits, making it the only Grand Slam event at which he is yet to reach the quarterfinals.
Day 5: ones to watch
Fourth seed Naomi Osaka opens the day’s play on Ashe against Ukrainian teen Marta Kostyuk, who is enjoying a revival after first coming to prominence when she reached the third round of AO 2018 as a 15-year-old.
The Ashe schedule closes with No.6 Petra Kvitova taking on giant-killing American Jessica Pegula, who has won seven of her past eight matches this year in New York.
Also headlining the schedule are two exciting “Next Gen” battles – pitting Stefanos Tsitsipas against Borna Coric and Denis Shapovalov against Taylor Frit – and world No.1 Novak Djokovic’s clash with 28th seed Jan-Lennard Struff, who the Serb comfortably beat at last week’s Western & Southern Open.
Djokovic will seek to extend his 2020 record to 26-0.