On a highly action packed day three at the Flushing Meadows in New York, three possible title contenders were sent crashing out of the U.S. Open as the German prodigy Alexander Zverev, veteran Frenchman Jo Wilfred Tsonga and controversial Australian Nick Kyrgios were upset by lesser known opponents. Grigor Dimitrov, Dominic Thiem, Marin Cilic and the 2009 champion Juan Martin Del Potro won their matches as the backlog of Tuesday was completed.

In the day session, the fourteenth seeded Nick Kyrgios was beaten by fellow Aussie John Millman who had entered the tournament with a protected ranking. 

The pair split the first two sets, but from 4-4 in the third set, the 235th ranked player from Brisbane took the next five games and eight of the last nine games to win 6-3,1-6,6-4,6-1 in two hours and fifteen minutes on Louis Armstrong Stadium. 

Over on the Grandstand court, the Montreal champion Alexander Zverev, seeded fourth was beaten by fellow GenNext star Borna  Coric of Croatia, 6-3,5-7,6-7(1),6-7(4) in three hours and twenty six minutes. The Canadian Denis Shapovalov, continued his impressive form as he beat the Frenchman Jo Wilfred Tsonga 6-4,6-4,7-6(3) in the night session on Arthur Ashe stadium.

The 2009 champion Juan Martin Del Potro played his opening round match which was postponed by rain on Tuesday and survived a relatively difficult test against the Swiss Henri Laaksonen as he progressed with a 6-4,7-6(3),7-6(5) win.  The sixth seeded Dominic Them of Austria completed his rain interrupted match with 6-4,6-1,6-1 victory over the Australian Alex de Minaur, ranked a lowly 186 in the world to advance into the second round. 

The Cincinnati champion Grigor Dimitrov of Bulgaria took his tally of consecutive sets won to 13 as he beat Vaclav Safranek of the Czech Republic 6-1,6-4,6-2. The 2014 champion Marin Cilic of Croatia, seeded fifth, had a surprisingly easy 6-3,6-3,6-3 win over the veteran German Florian Mayer to move into the third round.

Also advancing were the Frenchman Gael Monfils, Lucas Pouille, the Americans John Isner and Sam Querrey, David Goffin of Belgium, Tomas Berdych of the Czech Republic, Mischa Zverev of Germany, Pablo Carreno Busta, Roberto Bautista Agut and Feliciano Lopez of Spain,  Adrian Mannarino of France, Diego Schwartzman of Argentina, the South African Kevin Anderson and the German Phillip Kohlschreiber.

Some of the lower seeds fell by the wayside as the in form Leonardo Mayer of Argentina beat the Frenchman Richard Gasquet, seeded 26th, 3-6,6-2,6-4,6-2. Mixed results for Italy as the unseeded Paolo Lorenzi upset Giles Muller of Luxembourg 6-7(4),6-3,7-6(4),6-3 in three hours and twenty eight minutes, while his compatriot Fabio Fognini was upset by fellow Italian Stefano Travaglia 6-4,7-6(8),3-6,6-0. 

The Frenchman Nicolas Mahut who came through the qualifiers upset the 20th seeded Albert Ramos Vinolas of Spain 4-6,6-4,4-6,6-3,6-0. Damir Dzumhur of Bosnia Herzegovina who lost in the final of the Winston Salem Open last week upset the Argentina born Uruguayan Pablo Cuevas, seeded 27th, 7-5,7-6(3),6-1.

The following is the line up of matches in the top half of the men’s draw to be played on Thursday :-

Rafael Nadal (1) v. Taro Daniel (-)
Leonardo Mayer (-) v. Yuichi Sugita (-)

Victor Troicki (-) v. Stefano Travaglia (-)

Tomas Berdych (15) v. Alexander Dolgopolov (-)

David Goffin (9) v. Guido Pella (-)

Gael Monfils (18) v. Donald Young (-)

Damir Dzumhur (-) v. Cedrik-Marcel Stebe (-)

Grigor Dimitrov (7) v. Alexander Rublev (-)

Roger Federer (3) v. Mikhail Youzhny (-)

Fernando Verdasco (-) v. Feliciano Lopez (31)

Phillip Kohlschreiber (33) v. Santiago Giraldo (-)

John Millman  (-) v. Malek Jaziri (-)

Roberto Bautista Agut (11) v. Dustin Brown (-)

Juan Martin Del Potro (24) v. Adrian Menendez-Maceiras (-)

Adrian Mannarino (30) v. Bjorn Fratengelo (-)

Dominic Thiem  (6) v. Taylor Fritz (-)

In the women’s section of the draw, the 2006 champion Maria Sharapova of Russia continued her comeback with a 6-7(4),6-4,6-1 win over Timea Babos of Hungary in two hours and nineteen minutes. Venus Williams followed her with a 7-5,6-4 win over the Frenchwoman Oceane Dodin of France. 

The Ukrainian Elina Svitolina, seeded fourth, the 2004 champion Svetlana Kuznetsova and Elina Vesnina of Russia, American Coco Vandeweghe, Wimbledon champion Garbine Muguruza of Spain, Daria Gavrilova of Australia, Poland’s Agnieska Radwanska, Juliana Goerges of Germany, Carla Suarez Navarro of Spain, former two time Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova of the Czech Republic, Frenchwomen Carolina Garcia, Romanian Monica Niculescu,  Shuai Zhang of China, Anastasia Sevastova of Latvia and Magdalena Rybarikova of Slovakia were the day’s notable winners on day three.

The Russian Evgeniya Rodina ended the hopes of Eugenie Bouchard of Canada on Arthur Ashe stadium, while the former world number one Carolina Wozniacki of Denmark, seeded fifth was upset by the Russian Ekaterina Makarova 2-6,7-6(5),1-6 but not before a gallant fightback by the Dane in the second set. 

The American Sloane Stephens was a 6-2,5-7,6-3 upset winner over Dominica Cibulkova of the Czech Republic, seeded 11th. Donna Vekic of Croatia won 6-0,6-2 over the 22nd seeded Shuai Peng.

– Rasesh Mehta [Rasesh Mehta is an analyst with the Tennis Galaxy. You can reach him at the email: sportzcosmos@gmail.com]