Merida Stuns Rublev in Four Sets as the US Open's Early Rounds Turn Ruthless

The heaviest blow of the day in New York landed on Andrey Rublev. Daniel Merida, having lost the opening set in a tie-break, reorganised entirely and won the next three 6-2, 6-4, 6-4 to remove one of the most established names from the draw. The pattern of the scoreline tells the story: once Merida found the range, Rublev never again reached a tie-break, and the margins in the third and fourth sets were the kind of single-break gaps that reward the calmer server. It is the sort of result that reshapes a section of the bracket without warning.

Elsewhere on the men's side, the day belonged to control rather than chaos. Daniil Medvedev needed no drama to move through, handling Sebastian Gorzny 6-1, 6-3, 7-5, the third set the only passage in which the American qualifier managed to stay within touching distance. Alex Michelsen produced the cleanest American performance of the day, beating compatriot Brandon Nakashima 6-3, 6-4, 6-4 in a straight-sets win that never wobbled — three sets, three breaks of consequence, no return.

The women's programme offered its own headline in Paula Badosa's 6-1, 6-4 dismissal of Daria Kasatkina, a demanding opening assignment settled with a bagel-adjacent first set and a controlled second. Jessica Pegula was similarly economical against Sofia Kenin, winning 6-3, 6-1, while Taylor Townsend produced the most emphatic scoreline of the session, 6-1, 6-1 over Taylah Preston.

Jasmine Paolini and Leylah Fernandez both followed the same template — a competitive first set, a one-sided second. Paolini beat Lucrezia Stefanini 6-4, 6-1 in an all-Italian meeting; Fernandez saw off Mananchaya Sawangkaew 6-4, 6-1. Sorana Cirstea needed a little more patience to get past Diane Parry 6-2, 7-5, and Diana Shnaider had to close out a second-set tie-break to beat Karolina Pliskova 6-1, 7-6 after a near-flawless start.

The Challenger circuit delivered the day's longest tale of endurance. In Como, Matej Dodig beat Henry Bernet 6-7, 7-6, 7-5, three sets decided by the smallest possible margins, two of them in tie-breaks. Juan Pablo Varillas and Thiago Seyboth Wild had far shorter afternoons, dispatching Federico Arnaboldi 6-3, 6-1 and Norbert Gombos 6-4, 6-3 respectively.

On the Portuguese clay, Thiago Monteiro survived a mid-match dip to beat Mika Petkovic 6-1, 4-6, 6-2, while Gustavo Heide edged Tiago Pereira 7-5, 7-5 in a match of persistent tension. In Plovdiv, Oleksandr Ovcharenko overturned a lost tie-break to beat Pol Martin Tiffon 6-7, 6-4, 6-1, and Georgii Kravchenko began at full speed against O Milic before needing a tie-break to finish 6-0, 7-6. Mallorca's hard courts saw Ivan Ivanov open with a bagel against Maximus Jones (6-0, 6-4), Alexandre Muller and Mark Lajal advance in straight sets, and three-set survivals from Inaki Montes De La Torre, Maks Kasnikowski and Michele Ribecai.