Edmund Shocks Gasquet in Round One at Flushing Meadows

Great Britain’s Kyle Edmund upset 13th-seeded Frenchman Richard Gasquet Monday morning at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, delivering the first major upset of the 2016 U.S. Open with a blistering 6-2, 6-2, 6-3 victory.

Edmund came out firing from the onset, ripping five aces and converting on both of his break points to win the opening set in just 27 minutes. His efficient play continued into the second set as he once again converted on both of his break point chances and hit 11 winners to coast to another 6-2 set victory.

Gasquet would get one break in the third set but it was not enough as Edmund would break him two more times, hitting 14 winners in the set on his way to wrapping up the straight-sets victory.

“I was playing very consistently, I was very confident in what I was doing so I knew it wouldn’t take much to get that back,” Edmund said of Gasquet’s early third-set break. “I told myself you’re playing a good player, you got nothing to lose. Just go out and play.”

Edmund credited his calmness in the big moments of this match to his Davis Cup experience earlier this summer. He will take on American Ernesto Escobedo in the second round after Escobedo advanced past Lukas Lacko, 6-4, 4-6, 4-6, 6-3 (ret.).

Former U.S. Open champion Marin Cilic breezed into the second round, ousting Brazil’s Rogerio Dutra Silva 6-4, 7-5, 6-1 in the first match on Louis Armstrong Stadium. The 2014 champion hit just 23 winners over the three sets but was aggressive on his return, converting on six of 14 break points and losing just two of his own service games in the match.

Cilic will take on Ukraine’s Sergiy Stakhovsky next. Stakohovsky outlasted Portugal’s Gastao Elias 6-1, 3-6, 2-6, 6-3, 7-6(4).

Switzerland’s Belinda Bencic came back from a set down to upend American Samantha Crawford 6-7(6), 6-3, 6-4 and reach the second round.

Bencic held a 4-0 lead in the opening set tiebreaker, only to see Crawford win eight of the next 10 points to sneak out the first set. But Bencic would respond, turning up her aggressiveness to hit 15 winners and convert on five break points over the next two sets, including the decisive break for 4-3 in the third set, and advance to the second round.

“The first set was very frustrating because I missed so many chances and didn’t convert, and I honestly didn’t deserve to win the set,” said Bencic. “I had nothing left but to fight over the next two sets and that’s what I did.”

Bencic moves on to play Germany’s Andrea Petkovic, who was a 7-6(3), 6-3 winner over Slovakia’s Kristina Kucova Monday afternoon.

Australian Open champion Angelique Kerber played just seven games, but won them all as she led 6-0, 1-0 over Slovenia’s Polona Hercog before Hercog was forced to retire with an injury. American Christina McHale cruised past Germany’s Mona Barthel 6-2, 6-2, setting up a second round encounter with the number seven seed, Italy’s Roberta Vinci.

Elsewhere in the women’s singles draw, it was former U.S. Open champion and ninth-seeded Svetlana Kuznetsova who rolled past Francesca Schiavone, 6-1, 6-2. Up next for Kuznetsova is Denmark’s unseeded Caroline Wozniacki, a winner Monday over American Taylor Townsend, 4-6, 3-6, 6-4 at the new 8,000-seat Grandstand. 

Credit all photos to Brian Coleman

Switzerland’s Belinda Bencic came back from a set down to upend American Samantha Crawford 6-7(6), 6-3, 6-4 and reach the second round of the 2016 U.S. Open on Monday

On Monday in Flushing Meadows, American Christina McHale cruised past Germany’s Mona Barthel 6-2, 6-2, setting up a second round encounter with the number seven seed, Italy’s Roberta Vinci