Skip to main content

About the only problems No. 1 seed Ash Barty and other top players encountered Thursday afternoon at the U.S. Open came in the delays trying to get to Flushing Meadows in the aftermath of Hurricane Ida’s remnants blowing through the Northeast a night earlier.

Barty, a two-time major champion including at Wimbledon in July, Tokyo Olympic gold medalist Belinda Bencic, double Wimbledon title winner Petra Kvitova and other seeded women including No. 14 Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, No. 17 Maria Sakkari, No. 23 Jessica Pegula and No. 28 Anett Kontaveit all won in two sets to get to the third round.

Advancing in straight sets in men’s play during the day session: Summer Games gold medalist and 2020 U.S. Open runner-up Alexander Zverev and No. 22 seed Reilly Opelka of the United States.

With the sun out and nary a cloud around, play in second-round matches on the outer courts was pushed back from 11 a.m. to noon to allow the U.S. Tennis Association time to clean up downed tree branches and other scattered debris and make sure everything was ready for competition on Day 4 of the year’s last Grand Slam tournament.

Once all was ready to go, it was just a matter of players’ transportation navigating traffic delays caused by road closings and vehicles that were abandoned overnight; a trip from Manhattan to Queens that normally might take 30 to 45 minutes took 1½ hours or longer for some.

Barty delivered 11 aces and accumulated 19 break points, converting five, on the way to a 6-1, 7-5 win against 18-year-old Clara Tauson of Denmark.

The only seeded woman to exit in the afternoon was No. 24 Paula Badosa, who was eliminated by Varvara Gracheva 6-4, 6-4.

Angelique Kerber wasted little time defeating Anhelina Kalinina 6-3, 6-2 to advance to the third round of the U.S Open.

Kerber will meet 2017 champion Sloane Stephens in the next round. Stephens was among the players stuck in traffic Wednesday night when the remnants of Hurricane Ida swept through New York. She decided to “make the most of it” and posted photos of her and some New York pizza.

The 2016 U.S. Open champion continued the run of favoured women advancing in the draw. No. 7 Iga Swiatek, No. 10 Kvitova and No. 11 Bencic all won their matches on Thursday.

Swiatek survived an upset bid and held on to beat Fiona Ferro 3-6, 7-6(3), 6-0.

Olympic gold medalist Zverev cruised to the third round with a 6-1, 6-0, 6-3 win over Albert Ramos-Vinolas.

Zverev is trying to make the U.S. Open final for the second straight year. He won the first two sets last year in the final against Dominic Thiem before losing the match in his first Grand Slam final.

Zverev won the gold medal at the Tokyo Olympics and is one of three players with four titles this season.

He needed only 74 minutes to win his 13th straight match.

World number one Novak Djokovic sailed into the third round of the U.S. Open and moved a step closer to achieving a calendar year Grand Slam while 2019 women’s champion Bianca Andreescu extended her unbeaten run at Flushing Meadows to nine matches.

Djokovic beat Tallon Griekspoor 6-2 6-3 6-2 and the top seed said he had found his groove after dropping a set in his first round victory over the unheralded Holger Rune.

“I’m very pleased with the level of my tennis. All is going in the right direction,” said Djokovic, who meets Kei Nishikori in the next round.

Follow related authors and topics

Authors and topics you follow will be added to your personal news feed in Following.

Interact with The Globe