2 weeks Ago By Bridget Reilly
While there was plenty of tight American competition to witness and anticipate after the results of Friday’s day session for the U.S. Open, there were mostly clean wins from those visiting Flushing for the final Grand Slam of the year.
The match that was anticipated to be close was between No. 6 Andrey Rublev and No. 32 Jiri Lehecka.
However, Russia’s Rublev still managed to run away in three sets, 6-3, 7-5, 6-4, despite the close competition. The pair had one previous meeting this year at Indian Wells in March that saw Rublev go down in two straight sets in the best-of-three match on clay, 4-6, 4-6. Lehecka went on to beat Stefanos Tsitsipas before appearing in the quarterfinals to lose to Jannik Sinner.
Rublev’s serve on Friday proved too dominant, as he went on to win 89 percent of his first serve points that averaged around 114.5 mph and were in play 61 percent of the time. He also managed to defend 71 percent of his breakpoints and won five out of his total 16 opportunities against Lehecka, who lost five of his service games.
Rublev, who is best on clay and hard court, has gone 34-17 in singles this year. His victory sets him up in a fourth-round match against No. 9 Grigor Dimitrov on Sunday.
World No. 29 Paula Badosa had a scare on Friday morning against Elena-Gabriela Ruse of Romania in Louis Armstrong Stadium. The former Roland Garros quarterfinalist split the first two sets with Ruse before an intense tiebreaker final set, in which she saved a late match point, before coming out victorious 4-6, 6-1, 7-6 (8).
Badosa moves on to play Yafan Wang of China and will look to make it past the round of 16 this year in a Grand Slam. American youngster Peyton Stearns has been ousted from the U.S.
Open thanks to a straight set 7-5, 6-4 win from No. 24 Donna Vekic. The 22-year-old won just two of her five breakpoints and committed 28 unforced errors against Vekic’s 16.
The furthest Stearns has gone in a grand slam was the round of 16 at the U.S. Open in 2023.
Grigor Dimitrov cruised to a third-round victory over Dutchman Tallon Griekspoor, winning 6-3, 6-1, 6-1. No. 7 Qinwen Zheng also won with no problem, beating Germany’s Jule Niemeier, 6-2, 6-1, and will move on to face Vekic on Sunday.
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