US Open 2018: Men’s Singles First Round Upsets

The first round of the US Open this year has seen many of the top seeds on the men’s side breeze through with few problems. However, four big names have been eliminated early in unexpected defeats.

Stan Wawrinka vs Grigor Dimitrov

This was billed as a nightmare draw for Dimitrov, and so it turned out. The eighth seed was easily despatched by the 2016 champion, 6-3 6-2 7-5. This was the second grand slam in a row where these two have been draw in the first round. That match was slighty closer with Dimitrov taking the first set, however it didn’t look like he had learnt much from that loss to take into this match.

The biggest problem for Dimitrov in this match was his serve, he hit seven double faults throughout the match and only won 42% of points on second serve. He was also wasteful on break point chances, only winning one out of eight. He even served to take the third set, but was broken twice in a row for Wawrinka to take the match. In the second round, he will play 20-year-old French qualifier Ugo Humbert.

Kyle Edmund vs Paolo Lorenzi

The other main shock of the day was 36-year-old clay specialist Paolo Lorenzi taking out British number one and 16th seed Kyle Edmund. Although Edmund hadn’t been in the greatest form leading up to the match, it was assumed to be an easy win seeing as he had reached the semi-final of the Australian Open back in January. However, Lorenzi’s defensive style frustrated Edmund throughout the match with the Italian winning 4-6 6-4 7-5 6-1.

What made this match all the more surprising was that Lorenzi was playing his first hard court match since the Australian Open. Therefore Edmund should have used that to his advantage. However, he struggled with his return game because Lorenzi (who isn’t known as a big server) hit 21 aces during the match. Lorenzi moves to face Argentine Guido Pella in round two.

Selected Other

There were a couple of other matches which may have slipped under the radar, but were nonetheless surprising. First saw wildcard Jason Kubler easily beat 19th seed Roberto Bautista Agut 6-3 6-3 6-4. 2018 has been an excellent year for the 25-year-old Aussie. In January he was ranked 341, but has now cracked the top 100 and in ranked 98. This was his first win in a grand slam main draw and he will face the talented American Taylor Fritz in round two.

A poignant match was the win for Julien Benneteau playing in his final grand slam before he retires. He beat French Open semi-finalist Marco Cecchinato in four sets to progress to the second round. He faces Jan-Lennard Struff next, should he win that, he will match his best showing at a US Open in his final appearance.