-Ikenna Okafor
World No. 4 Stefanos Tsitsipas of Greece and No. 10 Taylor Fritz of the United States were among the top seeds upset on Day 1 of the 2022 US Open. World No. 7 Simona Halep of Belgium also exited the women’s singles circuit.Players from the respective 156-member fields took to courts Monday in Flushing, N.Y., for the first wave of main-draw matches at the final Grand Slam of the season.
In shocking scenes, Tsitsipas lost the first 11 games of the match as he found himself looking at a double-bagel to open the contest. He also received treatment on his upper right arm in the 6-0 6-1 3-6 7-5 defeat.“My arm was pretty tight, nothing was coming off my strokes,” Tsitsipas said in his post-match press conference.”I felt like my serve was very slow today, but it was close to the 120s, so I wouldn’t necessarily say that it was. But he returned great, extremely well. I’m pretty sure it has to do with the altitude where he grew up for sure helps a lot with this kind of stuff.“It crossed my mind when I started playing him that might be due to that. He did a great job, he dominated the game completely. I just couldn’t get into the match at all, it was as if I was half-dead.“He played like a world-class player and I played like close to an amateur, not very nice to say that, but that’s what happened.No. 1 Daniil Medvedev of Russia, No. 5 Casper Ruud of Norway, No. 6 Felix Auger-Aliassime of Canada, No. 12 Pablo Carreno Busta of Spain and No. 13 Matteo Berrettini of Italy were among the top men to advance.
Unseeded Daniel Galan of Colombia shocked Tsitsipas in four sets to reach the second round. Galan won that two-hour, 48-minute match 6-0, 6-1, 3-6, 7-5. He converted 7 of 18 break points and fired six aces and 41 winners in the victory.
2022 US OPEN: Tsitsipas rues ealy exit . Medvedev, Ruud, Busta march on