{"id":63702,"date":"2026-09-03T01:02:00","date_gmt":"2026-09-03T01:02:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/63702\/"},"modified":"2026-09-03T01:02:00","modified_gmt":"2026-09-03T01:02:00","slug":"aryna-sabalenka-powers-her-way-into-the-third-round-of-the-us-open-in-just-53-minutes-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/63702\/","title":{"rendered":"Aryna Sabalenka powers her way into the third round of the US Open in just 53 minutes"},"content":{"rendered":"

NEW YORK \u2013 Aryna Sabalenka came to the U.S. Open<\/a> struggling and in danger of losing the No. 1 ranking.<\/p>\n

She heads to the third round looking every bit ready for a three-peat.<\/p>\n

The top-seeded Sabalenka overwhelmed Polina Iatcenko 6-1, 6-1 in 53 minutes on Wednesday night, putting on a power-hitting display that made it seem her recent problems are in the past.<\/p>\n

Sabalenka won 15 of 16 points on first serve in the first set and only dropped off a little in the second, finishing 21 for 28 in the match.<\/p>\n

Sabalenka is trying to become the first player to win three in a row in Flushing Meadows since Serena Williams from 2012-14, but arrived after losing in the fourth round of her past three tournaments. She needs help to stay atop the WTA rankings even if she wins the title.<\/p>\n

But she made it clear if she loses the top spot, it won’t be without a fight.<\/p>\n

\u201cHappy with the level I played today, happy with the focus and happy to be through this match,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Jessica Pegula was also quickly into the third round at a rainy U.S. Open where some players were still playing their first-round matches.<\/p>\n

The No. 3 seed needed only 56 minutes on Wednesday to defeat Sofia Kenin 6-3, 6-1. Kenin, the 2020 Australian Open champion, beat Venus Williams in her first match<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo be out of there in under an hour, it doesn\u2019t always happen,\u201d Pegula said. \u201cSo I think I\u2019m just going to take that one and run, I guess, until the next round.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some players won’t get there for a while. With rain coming down for a second day in New York, play was suspended again for a time on outside courts, allowing only play under the roofs in Arthur Ashe Stadium and Louis Armstrong Stadium to continue uninterrupted.<\/p>\n

No. 8 seed Ben Shelton followed Pegula on Ashe and beat Hubert Hurkacz 6-3, 5-7, 7-6 (3), 7-5, while No. 7 Daniil Medvedev raced past Sebastian Gorzny \u2014 except for a brief delay to protest the chair umpire’s decision to replay a point when two birds sat on the net<\/a> \u2014 6-3, 6-3, 7-5.<\/p>\n

Defending champion Carlos Alcaraz was set to follow Sabalenka on Ashe.<\/p>\n

A three-day first round stretches into a fourth<\/p>\n

When the U.S. Open switched to a Sunday start last year, it spread out the first round over the first three days, so Wednesday would have arrived with everyone playing in the second round had the weather cooperated.<\/p>\n

It hadn’t.<\/p>\n

Alex de Minaur, the No. 6 seed from Australia, said with all the juggling his match was moved twice from the court where he was originally scheduled. He finally started his U.S. Open on Wednesday on Court 11 and beat Italy’s Andrea Guerrieri 6-2, 6-2, 6-4.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been a couple tough days. But I mean, these tournaments, it’s all about adapting and that\u2019s the name of the game,\u201d de Minaur said. \u201cThere\u2019s too much to play for to let something like this affect you.\u201d<\/p>\n

Paula Badosa said she didn’t even know how to prepare for the resumption of her match against Daria Kasatkina, which was halted Tuesday with her one game from winning to set up a second-round match against No. 4 Coco Gauff.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t know if I was going to play just two points or six, or I don\u2019t know how much, how many I play or one more set,\u201d the Spaniard said Wednesday after finishing off her 6-1, 6-4 victory.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo I knew that if I was winning this match, I\u2019m playing the next day. So, yeah, it was everything a bit different. I was very nervous that I even couldn\u2019t eat, so a lot of different stuff I did today, but sometimes it is how it is, and I tried to play with the things I had there.\u201d<\/p>\n

At least she got through. No. 12 Rafael Jodar, the 19-year-old from Spain who came in after a strong summer, was routed 6-2, 6-1, 6-1 by Bu Yunchaokete of China when his first-round match was finally completed.<\/p>\n

\u201cI knew it wasn\u2019t going to be easy because I was waiting a lot yesterday and today as well, but it is what it is,\u201d Jodar said. \u201cWe cannot control the rain, so it\u2019s difficult for both players.\u201d<\/p>\n

The tournament was trying to catch up from Tuesday\u2019s rain delays, with 25 singles matches being played on the men\u2019s side alone. The first round was finally completed Wednesday night.<\/p>\n

Alex Michelsen pulled off an upset in one of them by ousting fellow American Brandon Nakashima, the No. 16 seed, 6-3, 6-4, 6-4.<\/p>\n

No. 7 Karolina Muchova, the Wimbledon runner-up, beat Katie Boulter 6-1, 6-0 to reach the third round, while No. 11 Marta Kostyuk got past 2017 U.S. Open champion Sloane Stephens 6-1, 7-5. No. 31 seed Leylah Fernandez set up a matchup of past U.S. Open runners-up against Pegula, with the winner to meet either No. 16 Sorana Cirstea or No. 19 Jasmine Paolini.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

\nSee AP\u2019s full tennis coverage here<\/a>\n<\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEW YORK \u2013 Aryna Sabalenka came to the U.S. Open struggling and in danger of losing the No.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":63703,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[1677,217,419,2575,271,1021,1550,1545,4267,183,24139,22517,8519,122,1915,50,463,747],"class_list":["post-63702","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-us-open","tag-alex-michelsen","tag-aryna-sabalenka","tag-ben-shelton","tag-brandon-nakashima","tag-carlos-alcaraz","tag-daniil-medvedev","tag-frances-tiafoe","tag-hubert-hurkacz","tag-jaime-faria","tag-jessica-pegula","tag-polina-iatcenko","tag-rei-sakamoto","tag-sebastian-gorzny","tag-serena-williams","tag-sofia-kenin","tag-sports","tag-us-open","tag-venus-williams"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63702","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=63702"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63702\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/63703"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=63702"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=63702"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=63702"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}