After a nail-biting start, Ash Barty and Alex De Minaur are the first Aussies off the rank to proceed through to the second round of the US Open.
Ash Barty breathed a big sigh of relief after surviving a scare and progressing to the second round of the US Open in New York.
After losing the first five games, Australia’s world No.2 had to pull out all the stops before battling past dogged Kazakh Zarina Diyas 1-6 6-3 6-2 on Day 1.
Alex de Minaur also moved into the second round with a 6-4 6-2 6-7(6) 7-5 win over Frenchman Pierre-Hugues Herbert in four sets.
But fellow Australians Sam Stosur, Daria Gavrilova and Priscilla Hon all fell at the first hurdle.
Barty used her trusty trademark serve to drag herself out of a deep hole and set up a date on Wednesday with unseeded American Lauren Davis in four sets.
“I just had to start with my serve,” the French Open champion said after finishing with eight aces in the three-set escape.
“I really wasn’t giving myself enough chances on serve. I don’t know what the percentage was in the first set … but it wasn’t good.
“(Had to) go back to the basics, start again and try to figure it out.”
Opening tournament proceedings on Arthur Ashe Stadium, Barty made a terrible start, falling behind 5-0 in 20 minutes after struggling to find her rhythm.
After 19 unforced errors, Australia’s big title hope found herself down a set inside half an hour.
A furious Barty emerged a different player in the second set, bludgeoning a succession of winners to work her way back into the contest.
It took her eight games to break Diyas, ranked 77th in the world. But once she did Barty sealed the second set with a signature ace down the middle to get back on level terms.
She gained two more breaks in the third set to advance after a tough one-hour, 42-minute work-out.
“Zarina was able to put it in difficult positions even off my slice,” Barty said. “It was about trying to do it regularly and put her under pressure.”
Despite the shaky start, the 23-year-old said it was a thrill to return to Arthur Ashe Stadium following her breakthrough doubles triumph last year with CoCo Vandeweghe.
“It was a bit bizarre. We walked out here on practice the other day and some good memories came floating back,” Barty said.
“We are really pleased with the way we were able to solve this riddle today, figure it out and progress to the second round.”
Alex de Minaur was the first Australian through to the second round of the US Open men’s singles after downing Pierre-Hugues Herbert in four sets.
De Minaur advanced 6-4 6-2 6-7(6) 7-5 after a three-hour, five-minute battle with the Frenchman, extending Herbert’s losing streak to seven matches.
He next faces Chile’s 31st seed Christian Garin on Wednesday, after Garin required five sets to see off American wildcard Chris Eubanks.
De Minaur, who served 11 aces throughout the match, reached the last 32 at Flushing Meadows in 2018 and pushed No.7 seed Marin Cilic to five sets in a third-round thriller.
This year, he won the ATP title in Atlanta on hard courts as part of his lead-up to the season’s final Grand Slam event.
De Minaur recovered from a service break down in the fourth set to advance over Herbert, a winner of all four Grand Slam doubles crowns.
“It’s never an easy match-up against Pierre so very happy with how things went,” de Minaur said.
“Obviously the third set slipped a bit, a bit of a lapse in concentration, but it’s what happens in five-set matches. You’ve got to expect these things. So I’m happy I was able to bounce back and not let it affect me too much.
“I felt like as soon as I got out of that 2-0, 15-40 game on serve, that I was going to get chances because the whole match I was returning and serving really well.”
De Minaur has never before faced Garin.
“He’s another quality opponent, very tough, very solid,” De Minaur said.
“I’m happy to get through my first round and it’s going to be another incredibly tough match. But I’m feeling good, the body’s feeling good and I’m just pumped to be here.”
Champion in 2011, 35-year-old Stosur needed a wildcard into her 15th Open and fell 6-1 6-3 against Russian Ekaterina Alexandrova, the same player who beat Stosur in three sets in the second round of the French Open.
Gavrilova, who continues to battle a foot injury, ended the 2019 grand slam season without a win following a 6-3 6-4 loss to Frenchwoman Fiona Ferro.
Hon, a lucky loser from qualifying, succumbed 7-6(4) 6-4 to Russian Margarita Gasparyan.
Nick Kyrgios, John Millman, Jordan Thompson, Alexei Popyrin, Thanasi Kokkinakis, Ajla Tomljanovic and Astra Sharma all open their campaigns on Tuesday (Wednesday AEST).
