It was a night of upsets galore at the US Open as two of the main favourites for the title at Flushing Meadows were dumped out in Taylor Fritz and Stefanos Tsitsipas.
Fritz as number one ranked American player was facing a rising star who received a qualifying wildcard but on the night it was the #303 ranked player and son of two-time US Open champion, Tracy Austin that dumped him out.
It was a 6-7, 7-6, 6-3, 6-4 success as the 24-year-old who had to play in both qualifying for the US Open but also his last tournament - a challenger in Chicago so it is a win out of nowhere.
He turned professional in 2020 after the COVID-19 pandemic began but dealt with a hand injury which saw him undergo surgery to miss the rest of 2021 so it is very much the case of making up for lost time and he has very much done so.
In winning, he hit 18/23 points when he made his way to the net and left Fritz with no answers in extended rallies with his superb backhand. He now faces Pedro Cachin in the second round in a great chance for his run to continue.
While over on Louis Armstrong Stadium, Daniel Elahi Galan refused to let Tsitsipas slip through his grasp for the biggest win of his career so far.
He stunned the fourth seed with 41 winners throughout and claimed it 6-0, 6-1, 3-6, 7-5 converting his ninth match point after just under three hours on his main draw debut at the US Open.
Winning the first 11 games of the tie, Tsitsipas look frustrated and looked to be fading fast out of the tournament but the switch flipped and errors started to come from the Colombian as the Greek took the third set and gained the impetus to look to level up.
But it was a survival mission from there as Galan found control again and missed eight match points, in the end though he finally found his way through and will now take on Jordan Thompson after a supreme win.
“Definitely one of the best moments of my career,” Galan said. “Definitely the best match of my career, not only because of the circumstances, also the opponent. I’m really happy.”
“I think he started playing better in the third set. He served much better than the first two and I was putting the serve in the court, but not putting pressure on him. He was always in control," Galan said. "I think he felt really comfortable during those two sets. I tried to change a little bit the position when I was returning and that was a change a lot because I was able to return [deeper] and he was not so offensive on the first ball, so I was able to do a little bit more.”
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Brandon Holt, ranked #303, who received a qualifying wild card and made it all the way to the main draw, shocks #12 Taylor Fritz, USA's #1 ranked player 6-7(3), 7-6(1), 6-3, 6-4 to reach the 2nd round at the #USOpen.
Wow...