Andy Murray, the 2012 U.S. Open champion, reached this year’s second round by notching his 200th career major win with a victory over Corentin Moutet of France on Tuesday in New York.
Murray, 36, took nearly three hours to defeat Moutet in three sets, 6-2, 7-5, 6-3, and had high praise for his opponent after the match.
“Difficult match against a very skillful opponent, a very different game style to pretty much all of the guys on the tour now,” Murray said. “And, yeah, there were a lot of long points and tricky moments out there, a lot of stuff going on out there on the court. I did well to get it done in three sets.”
Murray had 45 winners against 23 unforced errors, while Moutet had 32 winners with 36 unforced errors.
Meanwhile, in his farewell U.S. Open appearance since announcing his pending retirement, American John Isner posted a straight-sets win over 22-year-old Argentinian Facundo Diaz Acosta, who was making his U.S. Open debut.
Isner fired off 11 aces and racked up 40 winners while defeating Diaz Acosta 6-4, 6-3, 7-6 (1).
“It’s not goodbye yet,” Isner told the crowd at Louis Armstrong Stadium postmatch. “I’m actually feeling pretty good, so I’m going to try to keep this going as long as I can.”
Isner will next face fellow American Michael Mmoh, an unseeded 25-year-old who scored a convincing upset over No. 11 Russian Karen Khachanov earlier on Tuesday, 6-2, 6-4, 6-2. Khachanov, who reached the semifinals last year, committed 46 unforced errors.
Aside from Khachanov, all of the other players seeded in the top 20 won their first-round matches in early Tuesday action. No. 3 Daniil Medvedev of Russia led the way with a 6-1, 6-1, 6-0 destruction of Hungary’s Attila Balazs. Also moving on were No. 6 Jannik Sinner of Italy, No. 8 Andrey Rublev of Russia, No. 12 Alexander Zverev of Germany, No. 13 Alex de Minaur of Australia, No. 16 Cameron Norrie of Great Britain, No. 17 Hubert Hurkacz of Poland and No. 19 Grigor Dimitrov of Bulgaria.
Dimitrov needed more than 4 1/2 hours to rally past Slovakia’s Alex Molcan 6-7 (9), 6-7 (5), 6-1, 7-5, 7-6 (9). Molcan had two match points in the third-set tiebreaker before losing the final four points.
No. 23 Nicolas Jarry of Chile, No. 26 Daniel Evans of Great Britain and No. 30 Tomas Martin Etcheverry of Argentina all prevailed, while No. 24 Tallon Griekspoor of the Netherlands, No. 27 Borna Coric of Croatia and No. 29 Ugo Humbert of France all lost.
In the featured late-night match, top seed and defending champion Carlos Alcaraz of Spain had a shortened day’s work. Germany’s Dominik Koepfer trailed 6-2, 3-2 when he retired due to an ankle injury.
–Field Level Media
