By Erik Gudris | @ATNTennis | Monday, August 29, 2022
Top seeds Stefanos Tsitsipas and Taylor Fritz suffered surprise upsets in their US Open first round matches.
Photo credit: Getty
August Madness is here.
In an eventful US Open opening round evening, two of the top names, and top contenders for the men’s singles title, found themselves packing their bags after Monday night.
More: Carlos Alcaraz Q&A
Both No. 4 seed Stefanos Tsitsipas and No. 10 seed Taylor Fritz found themselves bounced out of the draw by a pair of inspired qualifiers.
Colombian qualifier Daniel Elahi Galan proved he was ready for the challenge facing the No. 4 seed Tsitsipas in their opening round on Louis Armstrong Stadium.
Galan jumped out to an unexpected 6-0, 5-0 lead at the start of the match against a sluggish Tsitsipas. After Galan secured a 6-0, 6-1 lead, Tsitsipas sought help from a trainer for his forearm.
The World No. 94 Galan found himself dealing with a surge from Tsitsipas midway through the first round encounter. Tsitsipas took the third set and look revived enough to possibly take the match.
Yet Galan held his nerve and his game while Tsitsipas still struggled to find his form. That was even after Tsitsipas earned a break lead for 4-2 in the fourth set. Tsitsipas could not reign in his errors as he tried to force a decisive final set.
Galan soon earned the victory after Tsitsipas, the recent Cincinnati finalist, committed a forehand error, his 57th unforced error of the evening, on match point.
“"Definitely one of the best moments of my career,” Galan said afterwards. “Definitely the best match of my career, not only because of the circumstances, also the opponent. I’m really happy.”
Tsitsipas gave credit to his opponent after,but felt he could have played much better. “He played like a world-class player and I played like...close to amateur. It’s not very nice to say that but that’s what happened.”
Holt Surprises Fritz in Opening Round
Perhaps the most surprising result of the opening day belonged to qualifier Brandon Holt.
Holt, the son of two-time US Open champion Tracy Austin, battled his way through qualifying to face No. 10 seed Taylor Fritz.
While Fritz, who won Indian Wells earlier in the season, was picked by many to potentially make a deep run at this year’s US Open, Holt had other ideas.
Holt made life tough for Fritz on all sides of the court including up at the net. Holt won 18 out of 23 points up at the net. Holt also proved the better during their baseline rallies.
Soon enough, Holt found himself moving out into the second round after the 6-7(3), 7-6(1), 6-3, 6-4 win.