U.S. Open Day One Recap: Shelton Beats Thiem In First Round
Dominic Thiem played the final Grand Slam match of his career on monday. The 2020 U.S. Open Champion announced earlier this summer that he is retiring at the end of this year, and took on young American Ben Shelton in the first round of the U.S. Open on Monday.
Unfortunately for Thiem, Shelton, a semifinalist in 2023, was up to the task, and cruised to the 6-4, 6-2, 6-2 victory in Arthur Ashe Stadium.
Afterwards, an emotional Thiem addressed the New York crowd:
“First of all, thank you so much for all your support all those years. It’s been 10 years since I’ve played here the first time, but it’s actually a really important moment for me because I’ve had my greatest success of my career here on this court,” he said. “In this weird 2020, under very strange and different circumstances, unfortunately I had this success without any of you. So that was of course at one point a really amazing moment, but on the other hand also pretty sad.n I’m super happy that I got the chance to play my last US Open, my last match here on this court and I can now spend some time with you guys… To say thank you to all of you, and to make the time up that we have missed four years ago. So it’s a really special moment and I’m very grateful for everybody who came and everybody who gave me the chance to play here one last time.”
Shelton was clinical in his straight-sets win over Thiem, especially with his serve. He won 91% of his first service points, and saved the only break point he faced in the entire one hour and 50 minute contest.
He blasted 34 winners to just 17 unforced errors as he looks to duplicate his U.S. Open success from a year ago.
“I feel used to it now. I just felt comfortable,” Shelton said. “[I’m] used to it. Felt like I had been there before. Definitely excited. I think any chance that you get to play on Arthur Ashe is a moment that you remember forever. I added one to the books today, and just happy with how things went out there.”
The 13th seeded Shelton now faces Spain’s Roberto Bautista-Agut, who knocked out Italy’s Luca Nardi 7-5, 7-6(3), 7-6(5).
Shelton led the American charge on Monday, which included wins from top-ranked American male Taylor Fritz, who scores a 7-5, 6-1, 6-2 win over Argentina’s Camilo Ugo Carabelli inside Louis Armstrong Stadium.
Fritz draws a difficult second-round opponent in Italy’s Matteo Berrettini, a former U.S. Open semifinalist. Berrettini defeated Spanish veteran Alberto Ramos-Vinolas 7-6(2), 6-2, 6-3.
“It’s a tough second-round. In the head-to-head I’ve been able to get him, but it’s always been really close, as it always will be, because, you know, both of us are big servers. It’s going to be a lot of serving, a lot of holding,” Fritz said of his matchup with Berrettini. “And, you know, it’s going to, in the end, come down to how, you know, we perform. We have a chance, you know, and how I play when I’m breakpoint down and how he plays when he’s breakpoint down, stuff like that. If someone comes up with something on a big point, its small margins when there’s two people with big games playing each other.”
Frances Tiafoe defeated fellow American Aleks Kovacevic 6-4, 6-3, 4-6, 7-5, while Brandon Nakashima upset 15th seed Holger Rune of Denmark 6-2, 6-1, 6-4. Mitchell Krueger scored the second main draw Grand Slam victory of his career with a 4-6, 6-3, 6-4, 7-5 win over France’s Hugo Grenier.
Defending champion Novak Djokovic was the second match on Arthur Ashe in Monday’s night session, and made quick work of Moldova’s Radu Albot, advancing with a 6-2, 6-2, 6-4 victory.
“I think it was a solid start. I struggled with my serve and the rhythm on certain shots. Overall from the back of the court I thought I played pretty well,” said Djokovic. “It’s always challenging to start, particularly when you haven’t played on this surface for five, six months and coming off an Olympic gold and playing on clay. I haven’t had any official matches before US Open. So I’m expecting to be probably challenged a little bit more in the opening rounds.”
Other winners on the men’s side on Monday included fourth-seed Alex Zverev, sixth-seed Andrey Rublev, eighth-seed Casper Ruud, ninth-seed Grigor Dimitrov, 17th seed Ugo Humbert 18th seed Lorenzo Musetti and Gael Monfils.
