the US Open<\/a> on Tuesday, as second seed Elena Rybakina eased injury concerns after rain delayed the outdoor action by nearly \u200bfour hours.<\/p>\nKeys, runner-up in 2017, was undone by debilitating nerves in the first round a year \u200cago but found the right formula this time around in the first match on Arthur Ashe Stadium, beating Russian teen Alina Korneeva 7-5 6-4 under a closed roof.<\/p>\n
She fired off 21 winners to just seven from her opponent and will next play \u200beither Czech Lucie Havlickova or Hungarian Anna Bondar.<\/p>\n
“It’s so hard to play the first round of \u200ba Grand Slam. So nervous and wanting to do well,” said Keys. “So grateful I \u2060was able to fight through that.”<\/p>\n
![](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/1bfb43c6cc90ae3ada21d4563921dd7a.jpg\"\/)
Taylor Fritz, of the United States, serves to Darwin Blanch, of the United States, during the first round of the US Open tennis championships, in New York on Sept 1, 2026. (PHOTO\/AP)<\/p>\n
Ninth seed Fritz had an easy time in the second match of the \u200bday at the showpiece stadium, rolling past 18-year-old compatriot Darwin Blanch 6-3 6-2 6-4.<\/p>\n
The 2024 finalist had an \u200bup-and-down run-up to the year’s final major, winning in DC before losing his opening match in Montreal last month, but was back to his usual tricks on Tuesday, as he fired off 14 aces.<\/p>\n
Over at Louis Armstrong Stadium, Italian men’s fifth seed \u200bFlavio Cobolli survived a gritty encounter with Argentine Francisco Comesana 3-6 2-6 6-3 6-4 6-4, while the women’s fifth \u200bseed Mirra Andreeva had a far easier encounter in a 6-2 6-2 win over Indonesian Janice Tjen.<\/p>\n
Rain forces outdoor play delay<\/p>\n
Thousands \u200cof \u2060poncho-wearing ticketholders wandered around the grounds earlier in the day, as rain forced a long delay to the start of the action on the outdoor courts.<\/p>\n
Among the hot tickets was American teenager Thea Frodin, who served as the tennis-playing double for a young Serena Williams in the 2021 film King Richard.<\/p>\n
![](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/c3f1ea029354199b200c60b66657aa0e.jpg\"\/)
Elena Rybakina, of Kazakhstan, returns the ball to Thea Frodin, of the United States, during the first round of the US Open tennis championships, in New York on Sept 1, 2026. (PHOTO\/AP)<\/p>\n
She earned the praise of the home \u200bcrowd but did not get \u200ba Hollywood ending in \u2060her WTA tour-level debut against the second seed Elena Rybakina, who quieted serious injury concerns with a clinical 6-3 6-2 win.<\/p>\n
The 13th-seeded Italian Lorenzo Musetti followed on the largest \u200bof the outdoor courts with a comprehensive 6-3 6-3 7-5 defeat of Briton \u200bArthur Fery.<\/p>\n
Australian sixth \u2060seed Alex de Minaur was slated to close out the programme on Grandstand against Italian qualifier Andrea Guerrieri.<\/p>\n
Later on Tuesday, 2023 champion Coco Gauff can expect a hero’s welcome on Ashe, where she will play Turkiye’s Zeynep Sonmez, \u2060before men’s \u200btop seed Alexander Zverev faces Italian Lorenzo Sonego.<\/p>\n
ALSO READ: Williams, Alcaraz exit US Open mixed doubles; Monfils, Svitolina advance<\/a><\/p>\nOn Armstrong, French \u200bwildcard Gael Monfils starts his final Flushing campaign against Paraguay’s Adolfo Daniel Vallejo, while the Filipino sensation Alex Eala closes out the night \u200bsession against US qualifier Mary Stoiana.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Madison Keys, of the United States, returns the ball to Alina Korneeva, of Russia, during the first round…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":63992,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[283,366,751,221,28,463,282],"class_list":["post-63991","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-taylor-fritz","tag-atp","tag-grand-slam","tag-madison-keys","tag-taylor-fritz","tag-tennis","tag-us-open","tag-wta"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63991","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=63991"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63991\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/63992"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=63991"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=63991"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=63991"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/145378787448fc1c1b31967676b7c85c.jpg\"\/)
Madison Keys, of the United States, returns the ball to Alina Korneeva, of Russia, during the first round of the US Open tennis championships in New York on Sept 1, 2026. (PHOTO\/AP)<\/p>\n