No. 13 seed Ben Shelton of the United States ended Austrian Dominic Thiem’s U.S. Open career on Monday, beating the wild card 6-4, 6-2, 6-2 in a first-round match in New York.
Thiem, who won the U.S. Open in 2020, plans to retire this year. He received a standing ovation from fans following his loss to Shelton, which dropped him to 23-9 all-time at the fourth and final major of the season.
“It has been 10 years since I first played here. It is actually a really important moment for me, because I had my greatest success here on this court,” Thiem said. “… I am super happy I got the chance to play my last U.S. Open match on this court.”
Shelton finished with eight aces against Thiem’s two. He also won 41 of 45 first-serve points (91.1 percent).
“I want to say congrats to Domi and his team on an outstanding Grand Slam career,” Shelton said. “Four finals and a title is something only kids can dream about.”
Second-seeded Novak Djokovic of Serbia cruised in his opening match, closing the night with a 6-2, 6-2, 6-4 victory over Moldova’s Radu Albot. Djokovic wasn’t threatened despite serving more double faults (10) than aces (eight).
Other seeded players to win on Monday included No. 4 Alexander Zverev of Germany, No. 6 Andrey Rublev of Russia, No. 8 Casper Ruud of Norway, No. 9 Grigor Dimitrov of Bulgaria and No. 12 Taylor Fritz of the U.S.
Australian Alexei Popyrin, the No. 28 seed, also prevailed, while China’s Juncheng Shang pulled off a 6-4, 3-6, 5-7, 6-3, 6-4 upset of 27th-seeded Alexander Bublik of Kazakhstan. The United States’ Brandon Nakashima knocked off a seeded foe, too, ousting No. 15 Holger Rune of Denmark.
No. 17 Ugo Humbert of France, No. 18 Lorenzo Musetti of Italy, No. 29 Francisco Cerundolo of Argentina and No. 32 Jiri Lehecka of the Czech Republic joined Popyrin as players seeded outside the top 20 who advanced to the second round.
Later Monday, 20th-seeded Frances Tiafoe of the U.S. and No. 21 seed Sebastian Baez of Argentina punched their tickets to the Round of 64.
Spaniards Roberto Bautista Agut, Roberto Carballes Baena and Pedro Martinez, Italian Matteo Berrettini, American qualifier Mitchell Krueger and Argentines Francisco Comesana and Tomas Martin Etcheverry also won their first-round matches.
French wild card Alexandre Muller won, along with countrymen Gael Monfils, Arthur Rinderknech and Arthur Cazaux. Joining them in the second round will be Kazakhstan’s Alexander Shevchenko, Australia’s Rinky Hijikata, the Netherlands’ Tallon Griekspoor and two Serbians, Miomir Kecmanovic and Laslo Djere.
–Field Level Media
