Frances Tiafoe is getting the rematch he wants, a second shot at Ben Shelton at the U.S. Open.
But there won’t be a second straight Grand Slam title for Barbora Krejcikova.
The Wimbledon champion was knocked out of the U.S. Open in the second round on Wednesday, defeated by Elena-Gabriela Ruse 6-4, 7-5.
The No. 8-seeded Krejcikova won her second Grand Slam singles title this summer, but then she didn’t play any matches after the Paris Olympics. She acknowledged last week not knowing where her level of play was.
Turns out, it wasn’t good enough.
“I mean, winning Wimbledon is amazing. It’s a great, great, great result, I’m very proud about it and how I was able to handle everything there,” said Krejcikova, who hadn’t played a tournament on hard courts since February.
No woman has won Wimbledon and the U.S. Open in the same year since Serena Williams in 2012.
Defending champion Coco Gauff marched into the third round with a 6-4, 6-0 victory over Tatjana Maria. The No. 3 seed will next face No. 27 seed Elina Svitolina.
Tiafoe had short work on the steamiest day of the tournament thus far, with temperatures in New York surpassing 32 degrees C. The No. 20 seed won the first two sets before his opponent, Alexander Shevchenko, retired after the first game of the third set, one of two men’s matches in which a player stopped.
Shelton, the No. 13 seed, later beat Roberto Bautista Agut 6-3, 6-4, 6-4. He ousted Tiafoe last year in the quarterfinals, stopping Tiafoe from what would have been a second straight trip to the U.S. Open semifinals.
“Obviously he’s very much like me in how excited and energetic he is on the court,” Tiafoe said, “and has such a big game and big shots and serves big and gets the crowd going.”
Well, maybe not quite as well as Tiafoe does.
“I know that the people love him here. Probably more than me. He’s electric here, and his crowds are electric here,” the 21-year-old Shelton said.
“It will be a battle. It will be a war just like the last two times we’ve played. Yeah, I’m more than excited to be out there with him again.”
Career best for Ruse
Ruse, a 26-year-old from Romania, advanced to the third round of a Grand Slam for the first time and will play No. 26 seed Paula Badosa, who eliminated American Taylor Townsend 6-3, 7-5.
Badosa continued her resurgence in a strong summer by reaching the third round of the U.S. Open for the first time.
“I know it’s just a third round, but I was really looking forward to doing this in New York,” said Badosa, a Spaniard who was born in New York.
Jiri Lehecka ignored the heat to engineer the biggest comeback of his career, rallying to beat Mitchell Krueger 6-7 (5), 0-6, 6-4, 6-4, 7-5 in a match that finished a minute shy of four hours. Lehecka, the No. 32 seed, not only came from two sets down for the first time in his career, but he was even down 3-0 in the third set against the American qualifier.
“I kind of dug back into the match with a big fight, and then the fourth set and fifth set was just a battle and we were both fighting for every point,” Lehecka said.
He will face No. 6 seed Andrey Rublev, who also came from two sets down to outlast Arthur Rinderknech 4-6, 5-7, 6-1, 6-2, 6-2.
Past U.S. Open finalists Aryna Sabalenka and Alexander Zverev both won their matches in straight sets, while Olympic gold medalist Zheng Qinwen, the No. 7 seed, rallied passed Erika Andreeva in three sets.
Another women’s third-round match will see No. 14 seed Madison Keys against No. 33 Elise Mertens. Keys, the 2017 runner-up in Flushing Meadows, rolled past Maya Joint 6-4, 6-0, while Mertens knocked out Ajla Tomljanovic 6-3, 6-2.
Shapovalov heading home
Canada’s Dennis Shapovalov is out of the U.S. Open after he and Soonwoo Kwon of South Korea dropped their first-round men’s doubles match.
The duo were beat 6-4, 6-4 by Italy’s Flavio Cobolli and Dominic Stricker of Switzerland in a one-hour, 11-minute match.
Shapovalov and Kwon fired four aces, but also had 24 unforced errors compared to just eight for Cobolli and Stricker.
The 25-year-old Shapovalov, who hails from Richmond Hill, Ont., was eliminated from the men’s singles draw Tuesday with a straight-sets loss to Botic van De Zandschulp in first-round action.
Montreal’s Gabriel Diallo is the lone Canadian still playing singles at the Grand Slam event, and the 22-year-old is set to face Arthur Fils of France Thursday in a second-round matchup.
Two Canadians remain in women’s doubles action, with Ottawa’s Gabriela Dabrowski and Erin Routliffe of New Zealand set to face Leylah Fernandez of Laval, Que., and Kazakhstan’s Yulia Putintseva on Thursday.
WATCH | Canada’s Diallo posts 1st-ever Grand Slam win Monday at U.S. Open:
Montreal’s Gabriel Diallo is off to the second round at the US Open after defeating Spain’s Jaume Munar 6-4, 3-6, 6-3, 7-5 Tuesday in New York.
