{"id":64723,"date":"2026-09-03T21:55:11","date_gmt":"2026-09-03T21:55:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/64723\/"},"modified":"2026-09-03T21:55:11","modified_gmt":"2026-09-03T21:55:11","slug":"alex-eala-and-naomi-osaka-advance-no-3-auger-aliassime-falls-at-us-open-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/64723\/","title":{"rendered":"Alex Eala and Naomi Osaka advance, No. 3 Auger-Aliassime falls at US Open"},"content":{"rendered":"

NEW YORK (AP) \u2014 Alex Eala and her fans are headed to the weekend at the U.S. Open<\/a>, along with two-time champion Naomi Osaka<\/a>.<\/p>\n

So is Madison Keys \u2014 just barely \u2014 but not No. 3 Felix Auger-Aliassime<\/a>, who became the highest-seeded player knocked out of the tournament thus far.<\/p>\n

Osaka recovered after a mid-match lapse to advance to the third round with a 6-2, 5-7, 6-1 victory over Katerina Siniakova<\/a> on Thursday, before Eala beat Oleksandra Oliynykova<\/a> 6-1, 6-4.<\/p>\n

Doubles play also began, though Serena and Venus Williams won\u2019t play their first-round match until Friday night against Hao-Ching Chan<\/a> and Maya Joint, who beat Serena in singles play at Wimbledon this summer.<\/p>\n

Eala, the No. 17 seed from the Philippines, gave her passionate backers reason to cheer immediately by winning the first nine points against her Ukrainian opponent, who had won their only previous meeting.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think everybody represents something in their own way; I\u2019m Filipino and I proudly represent that,\u201d Eala said. \u201cAnd a lot of the crowd here today is Filipino and I\u2019m sure they share in that sentiment.\u201d<\/p>\n

Osaka wore silver and white under her long white jacket with a white visor as she arrived for her match in Arthur Ashe Stadium, three days after she was dressed in black with her hair done in cornrows under a headband in a tribute to former NBA superstar Allen Iverson for her opener at night.<\/p>\n

The No. 13 seed won the first set in 30 minutes and then opened a 4-2 lead in the second. But her level of play took a substantial dip, with 20 unforced errors in the set after only four in the first.<\/p>\n

Osaka quickly regained control, breaking for a 2-0 lead in the third before finishing a 19-shot rally with a volley for a winner en route to taking the next game, appearing more relieved than excited by her nice touch.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe match was definitely really tough and I don\u2019t know, I just felt like I had to fight,\u201d Osaka said. \u201cI definitely had a couple opportunities in the second set and I think I was a little bit too hard on myself. So I took the bathroom break, regrouped a little, came back and just tried to have no regrets.\u201d<\/p>\n

Auger-Aliassime tumbles out and Keys barely hangs on<\/p>\n

Auger-Aliassime said he was feeling dizzy and seeing spots and couldn’t recover, falling to Karen Khachanov<\/a> 6-7 (5), 6-3, 6-2, 6-2.<\/p>\n

\u201cKaren is a great player. Look, I cannot beat him or anybody in this draw feeling the way I felt today,\u201d the Canadian said. \u201cIf I cannot move, we\u2019re not talking about tennis here.\u201d<\/p>\n

The highest seed to fall so far had been No. 4 Novak Djokovic, who lost in the first round at the U.S. Open<\/a> for the first time in the 24-time Grand Slam champion’s career.<\/p>\n

Keys, the 2017 runner-up, also was on the verge of an early exit before erasing five match points and edging Anna Bondar<\/a> 5-7, 6-4, 7-6 (10-5).<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was something, huh? No stress, though, we all knew I had it right?\u201d Keys joked to the fans afterward.<\/p>\n

Other winners included 2022 champion Iga Swiatek<\/a> and 2025 runner-up Amanda Anisimova<\/a>. Taylor Fritz<\/a>, the 2024 men’s runner-up, eased to 6-0, 6-1, 6-1 victory over Mattia Bellucci<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Gauff, Zverev and Monfils highlight the night action<\/p>\n

Coco Gauff<\/a>, who won her first major title at Flushing Meadows in 2023, faces Paula Badosa<\/a> in a night match that will be followed by No. 1 Alexander Zverev<\/a>, who hopes for an easier time against Quentin Halys<\/a> after he needed five sets to edge Lorenzo Sonego<\/a> on Tuesday, barely avoiding becoming the first No. 1 seed to lose in the first round of a men’s major since 2003.<\/p>\n

Badosa will be playing for the second straight day, forced to finish her first-round match Wednesday after play was suspended Tuesday because of rain that hampered the tournament for multiple days. The sun was out again Thursday when play began.<\/p>\n

Also in action is Gael Monfils<\/a>, who is planning to retire after this year but won Tuesday on his 40th birthday to prolong his Grand Slam career and advance to face No. 14 Learner Tien.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

See AP\u2019s full tennis coverage here<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEW YORK (AP) \u2014 Alex Eala and her fans are headed to the weekend at the U.S. Open,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":50913,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[243,1696,858,21787,185,18995,244,261,25026,247,1742,2219,270,3459,8185,282],"class_list":["post-64723","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-alexander-zverev","tag-alexander-zverev","tag-amanda-anisimova","tag-anna-bondar","tag-atp-us-open-08-18-2026","tag-coco-gauff","tag-event_recap","tag-felix-auger-aliassime","tag-gael-monfils","tag-hao-ching-chan","tag-iga-swiatek","tag-karen-khachanov","tag-katerina-siniakova","tag-naomi-osaka","tag-oleksandra-oliynykova","tag-paula-badosa","tag-wta"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64723","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=64723"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64723\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/50913"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=64723"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=64723"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=64723"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}