Jessica Pegula cruised into the US Open second round with a straight-sets win, while 27th seed Barbora Krejcikova became the first seeded casualty despite saving six match-points.
Key Points
- Jessica Pegula made a strong start to her US Open campaign, beating Elena-Gabriela Ruse in straight sets to reach the second round.
- Barbora Krejcikova suffered the tournament’s first seeded exit, with Kamilla Rakhimova advancing after saving six match points.
- Jasmine Paolini survived a three-set battle, while Jiri Lehecka progressed as the men’s draw continued to lose players to injuries.
Highest-ranked American Jessica Pegula cruised into the US Open second round while 27th seed Barbora Krejcikova crashed out, as the year's final major got underway on Sunday with a record purse of $108 million up for grabs.
Dozens of ticketholders were lined up long before the action kicked off and the home crowd was rewarded as world number three Pegula beat Romania's Elena-Gabriela Ruse 6-3, 6-2 in the first match at the showpiece Arthur Ashe Stadium.
The 2024 finalist will play the winner of a meeting between American wildcards Venus Williams and Sofia Kenin, who are due to close out the night session on Ashe later on Sunday.
Krejcikova Becomes First Seeded Casualty
The twice Grand Slam winner Krejcikova became the first seeded player to exit the tournament, saving six match points before succumbing to Uzbekistan's Kamilla Rakhimova 7-6(4), 6-2 on the outer courts.
Rakhimova, who has never made it past the third round at the majors, will play the winner of Monday's match between Japan's Aoi Ito and Spain's Oksana Selekhmeteva.
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Paolini Survives Scare
Italian Jasmine Paolini survived a scare to get past Slovenia's Veronika Erjavec 6-3, 3-6, 6-4 in the opening match at Louis Armstrong Stadium, firing off 36 winners to just 13 from her opponent.
The 2024 Wimbledon and French Open finalist will play the winner of a match later on Sunday between her compatriot Lucrezia Stefanini and Ukrainian Dayana Yastremska.
Guests piled into Flushing Meadows under pristine playing conditions, as the tournament entered its second year in a 15-day format with the first round played over three days.
Medvedev eases into second round
Former champion Daniil Medvedev made light work of France's Hugo Gaston 6-4, 6-2, 6-4, exorcising the demons of his ill-fated campaign a year ago with an aggressive performance at Arthur Ashe Stadium.
A frequent - and gleeful - villain at the tournament he won in 2021, Medvedev crashed out in the opening round in 2025 but was all business this time around with 34 winners against just 11 from his opponent.
"You need to play your game - I knew he was going to do some drop shots, some underarm serves," said Medvedev. "I needed to make some winners, put some pressure on him."
Gaston's creative shotmaking had little impact on the nimble-footed, six-foot six-inch Medvedev, and the Frenchman did himself no favours as he handed his opponent the break with a misplaced backhand in the seventh game.
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The seventh seed upped his level in the second set, where the Frenchman gifted him the break in the third game when he whacked a forehand into the net.
Medvedev held onto the momentum from there, leaping into the air to hit a superbly placed backhand shot out of Gaston's reach on break point in the seventh.
Only days after publicly pondering a career in pickleball after his opening-match defeat at Winston-Salem, the mercurial Russian converted another break-point chance in the opening game of the third when he whipped a forehand past the Frenchman.
He closed it out with an unreturnable serve and will play the winner of a match later on Sunday between American wildcard Sebastian Gorzny and Belgian Raphael Collignon.
Lehecka Advances to Round 2
Czech Jiri Lehecka kicked off the action on the Grandstand with a 6-1, 7-6(5), 4-6, 6-2 win over Spain's Pablo Carreno Busta, as an injury-tinged men's field lost yet another player when the 2022 finalist and 19th seed Casper Ruud withdrew from the tournament, citing a persistent back injury.
He joined World No. 1 Jannik Sinner and Brazilian fan-favourite Joao Fonseca among the injured absentees in Flushing Meadows.
Organisers added an extra day to the schedule in 2025 following years of runaway demand for tickets and US Tennis Association chief executive Craig Tiley said that the $108 million purse, the largest in tennis history, was aimed at giving players a fair share of the revenue.
