New York | British No 7 Miyazaki leads upsets in 1st-round of US Open qualifying

Britain’s Yuriko Lily Miyazaki joined Harriet Dart in the 2nd-round of qualifying for the US Open at Flushing Meadows in New York on Wednesday, producing a convincing 6-3 6-2 win over Ukraine’s Daria Snigur, the No 23 seed, 6-3 6-2, while a string of other upsets also peppered completion of the 1st-round of matches.

Both Brits now need two more wins to make the main draw, which starts on Monday.

Tokyo-born Miyazaki, who began representing Great Britain in 2022, will face Russia’s Valeria Savinykh on Thursday, after beating Snigur, a player ranked 84 places above her, while Dart takes on Yanina Wickmayer, the 3rd seed from Belgium.

This time last year, Snigur delivered one of the most significant upsets of 2022 when she defeated former World No 1 Simona Halep in the 1st-round of the main draw, but the Ukrainian could not reproduce that kind of form on her return.

Louisa Chirico took out the top qualifying seed Nao Hibino in straight sets on Wednesday

A raft of upsets saw 9 seeded players lose their openers on the second day of action, led by Japan’s top-seeded Nao Hibino, who won her 3rd career title in Prague just 2 weeks ago, and fell 7-6(3) 6-3 to Louisa Chirico, despite leading by an early break in the first set.

Chrico is seeking to return to the US Open main draw for the first time since making two prior appearances in 2015-16, and the result was a measure of revenge for the No 225-ranked American, as this was the third time in the past 5 Grand Slams that the pair had faced each other in the 1st-round of qualifying, which Hibino had won.

Elsewhere, Greece’s Despina Papamichail scored her 3rd career Top 100 win with a 6-3 6-4 upset of No 4 seed and former Wimbledon quarter-finalist, Jule Niemeier from Germany; and 363rd-ranked American wild-card McCartney Kessler edged out the No 7 seed, Yuan Yue from China, 4-6 6-2 7-6[4], in a 2-hour, 41-minute thriller that came down to a match tiebreak.

Japan’s Moyuka Uchijima was in superb form as she stunned Brenda Fruhvirtova, the No 21 seed, 6-1 6-2, in just 75 minutes.

16-year old Fruhvirtova had entered the tournament on a 10-match winning streak after capturing a pair of ITF clay-court titles in Germany this month, but the Czech teenager had few answers as Uchijima swatted away repeated drive volley winners.

Australia’s Priscilla Hon took out Serbia’s Olga Danilovic, the 11th seed, 3-6 6-4 6-1, while America’s Elvina Kalieva was a 7-6(4) 7-5 upset winner over Maria Timofeeva, the 27th seed from Russia.

Timofeeva captured the Budapest title as a lucky loser playing her first WTA main draw, but the 19-year-old was edged on her Flushing Meadows debut by Kalieva, ranked 183, who led 5-0 in the first set before the Russian levelled, but closed it out in a tiebreak, while, in the second set, she overturned a 4-0 deficit to win 7 of the last 8 games.

No 2 seed Diana Shnaider overpowered Hailey Baptiste in just 77 minutes to reach QR2 on Day 2 in New York

Meanwhile, No 2 seed Diana Shnaider and 15th-seeded Yafan Wang delivered impressive performances to reach the 2nd-round of US Open qualifying on Day 2.

Shnaider reached the 2nd-round at the Australian Open and cracked the WTA’s Top 100 this season while still in school, then turned pro in the summer and advanced to the 2nd-round at Roland Garros.

A 3-time junior Grand Slam doubles champion, including last year at the US Open with Lucie Havlickova, the 19-year-old Russian is making her senior debut this year in New York where she made a confident start to her campaign overpowering American Hailey Baptiste, 6-3 6-4, in just 77 minutes.

She dropped just 3 points behind her first serve, and was not broken in the contest, while she saved the only break point against her, and winning 90% of her first-serve points in the match, which was played on the Grandstand.

Shnaider, who reached her first tour-level semi-final in Hamburg last month, will next face former Roland Garros junior champion Elsa Jacquemot from France next.

Wang, a former World No 47 from China, inflicted a double-bagel whitewash in just 53 minutes on 17-year-old Czech Sara Bejlek, extending her winning streak to 8 matches after capturing the Stanford WTA 125 title as a qualifier last week.

Against Bejlek, Wang conceded just 9 points, and did not face a game point, over the last 9 games of the contest to score her 6-0 6-0 win.

Wang, who missed 7 months of action in 2022 and was ranked 696 in March, has soared back up to No 115 this week after compiling a 54-10 record at ITF and WTA 125 level this year.

She will next face America’s Ann Li, who advanced past Carlota Martinez Cirez from Spain, 7-6(1) 6-2.

Katrina Scott also advanced past Serbia’s Natalija Stevanovic, who retired with the American leading, 6-2, 3-3.

Scott is in pursuit of her second US Open main-draw appearance, having reached the 2nd-round in 2020 as a wild-card debutant.

Four players pulled off escapes from the brink of defeat on Day 2, taking the total number of 1st-round winners from match point down to 6.

Emiliana Arango fought off 5 match points in one of the best contests of the day to defeat Ipek Oz from Turkey in 2 hours and 52 minutes

Colombia’s Emiliana Arango fought off 5 match points in one of the best contests of the day to defeat Ipek Oz from Turkey, 4-6 6-1 7-6[7], in 2 hours and 52 minutes.

The 22-year-old trailed 1-4 in the 3rd set, but fended off one match point at 5-4 on her own serve, and 4 more at 6-5, including 3 in a row, before Arango’s greater aggression and willingness to come forward saw her take control of the ensuing match tiebreak.

No 22 seed Nuria Parrizas Diaz from Spain trailed Cyprus’s Raluka Serban by a set and 5-3 before the former World No 45 turned the contest around to win 2-6 7-5 6-3 in 2 hours and 52 minutes.

Serban served for the match at 5-4 in the 2nd set, but was unable to convert 3 match points in that game.

Another Spaniard, No 32 seed Marina Bassols Ribera, claimed victory in the longest match of the 1st-round, saving 2 match points in the second-set breaker to overcome Arina Rodionova, a Russian-born Australian, 5-7 7-6(8) 6-4, in 3 hours and 7 minutes.

American wild-card, 16-year old Valerie Glozman, saved 2 match points while serving at 5-6 in the 2nd set before defeating former World No 35 Olga Govortsova from Belarus, 4-6 7-6(5) 6-1.

This is just the second professional event of Glozman’s career following last year’s US Open qualifying, where she also won a round.

There were contrasting fortunes for two former Top 10 players in action, with Russian veteran, Vera Zvonareva, the 2010 US Open runner-up, needing only 68 minutes to dismiss Aussie Jaimee Fourlis, 6-3 6-0, but 2017 semi-finalist CoCo Vandeweghe fell 6-0 6-2 to Germany’s Eva Lys in the same length of time, the American committing 49 unforced errors in total.

Another youngster who enjoyed her breakthrough WTA debut last month, 19-year old Noma Noha Akugue rom Germany, was unable to sustain her momentum in New York and fell to Irina Bara, 6-2 6-4, undone by a lack of consistency in the face of the Romanian’s canny defence.