Coco Gauff kicked off her US Open adventure with a convincing straight‑sets victory over Turkey's Zeynep Sonmez, while the legendary Williams sisters, Serena and Venus, are slated to meet the pair of Maya Joint and Chan Hao‑Ching after Tuesday's draw. Fresh off her triumph at the Cincinnati Open, the home‑grown favorite Gauff is eyeing a third Grand Slam crown following her breakthrough win in New York last year. The 22‑year‑old American has reached at least the fourth round in each of the past four editions of the tournament, and she now awaits a second‑round clash with either Russia's Daria Kasatkina or Spain's Paula Badosa. "I wasn't that nervous today, which was a shock," Gauff told the crowd after the match.
"When I walked back out on this court, I was trying to hold back a smile." From the first game, Gauff established dominance, breaking Sonmez's serve once in the opening set and sealing the set in just over thirty minutes. World No.
53 Sonmez, however, displayed moments of brilliance, rattling the crowd with a series of powerful winners, including a blistering backhand that even drew applause from Gauff herself. In the second set, Sonmez settled into a rhythm, trading breaks and testing the American with deep groundstrokes and occasional net rushes. Gauff faced a brief scare, trailing 3‑2, but she saved three break points, held serve to level the set, and then broke Sonmez again to re‑establish control at 4‑3. The American soon pulled away, as Sonmez struggled to maintain the intensity that had briefly unsettled the fourth seed.
"I know that I can raise my level if I need to," Gauff said after the match. "I like to challenge my opponent to keep up that level the whole match, and if they do, I clap my hands and walk off the court with my head held high. But I was able to settle down." The women's doubles draw also generated excitement.
Serena and Venus Williams, who together captured the US Open doubles titles in 1999 and 2009, will partner again against the No. 14‑seeded duo of Hao‑Ching Chan and Maya Joint. The sisters last teamed up at a Grand Slam in New York in 2022, where they fell in the opening round. They had hoped to reunite at Wimbledon after Serena's return to competition in June, but a knee injury forced her to withdraw from her first‑round singles match against Joint, ending those plans.
Serena, now 44, made her comeback this season after a four‑year hiatus, only to lose to Joint, a 20‑year‑old Australian, and subsequently injure her knee, prompting her to pull out of the scheduled doubles match at the All England Club. The pair also paired up at the Western & Southern Open in Cincinnati, where they were upset in the first round by Marta Kostyuk and Peyton Stearns. In the men's draw, Alexander Zverev escaped a historic first‑round upset.
The German, who claimed his maiden major title at the French Open and fell to Jannik Sinner in the Wimbledon final, entered the US Open as the top seed after Sinner withdrew with a knee injury. Zverev fought back from a precarious position, edging Lorenzo Sonego 6‑4, 3‑6, 6‑7(7), 7‑5, 6‑4 in a marathon that stretched into the early hours of Wednesday morning. Zverev's win prevented him from becoming the first No.
1 seed to lose his opening match at a Grand Slam since Ivo Karlović toppled Lleyton Hewitt at Wimbledon in 2003. The US Open had not seen a top seed fall in the first round since Stefan Edberg was beaten by Alexander Volkov in 1990. After nearly four hours and fifty‑two minutes of play, Zverev finally broke Sonego's serve late in the fourth set and held on to seal the victory. Other notable results included fifth‑seed Flavio Cobolli surviving a five‑set battle against Argentina's Francisco Comesana, while ninth‑seed Taylor Fritz, one of the tournament's home‑court hopes, dispatched fellow American Darwin Blanch in straight sets.
French veteran Gaël Monfils, who plans to retire at the end of the season, celebrated his 40th birthday with a dominant 2‑6, 6‑2, 6‑1, 6‑0 win over Adolfo Alvarez. The US Open continues to be broadcast live on Sky Sports from August 30, with streaming options available on NOW and the Sky Sports app. Fans can also catch the Laver Cup at London's O2 Arena from September 25‑27, all shown on Sky Sports.