Rafael Nadal boasted after his first-round US Open match that he had a video recording of being the first player to hit a ball in practice under the new roof at the Arthur Ashe Stadium.
On Wednesday, the fourth-seeded Spaniard achieved the double as he hit the first ball in competition under the US$150 million roof after rain briefly interrupted his second-round match against Italian Andreas Seppi.
The crowd looked skyward at the spectacle of the high-tech closure and roared in approval when the two sides met above the court after 5 minutes, 35 seconds.
Photo: AP
Play resumed 7 minutes, 22 seconds after the stoppage, with Nadal serving at 3-3 in the second set before he completed a 6-0, 7-5, 6-1 victory over Seppi.
The Spaniard was aglow after his victory and being part of the first match played under the Ashe Stadium roof.
“I was very happy to be the first player to play in the competition with this fantastic roof closing,” he said. “Amazing, unbelievable.”
Nadal’s mood was in stark contrast to women’s French Open champion Garbine Muguruza, who preceded her compatriot onto the Arthur Ashe Stadium court and was upset by 48th-ranked Anastasija Sevastova of Latvia 7-5, 6-4 in the second round.
Muguruza and Sevastova played with the roof open, but both complained about noise from boisterous fans, which appeared to be exacerbated by the roof support structure trapping the sound.
Umpires continually appealed to the crowd to be quiet, but that did little to lower the noise.
Milos Raonic fell to a stunning 6-7 (4/7), 7-5, 7-5, 6-1 second-round loss to 120th-ranked US qualifier Ryan Harrison, with cramps affecting Raonic’s play.
“It was just catching me all over,” Raonic said. “I started getting small [cramps] where I couldn’t hold the racket. I couldn’t switch grips from one point to the next. There were a few points where I would hold the racket with my left and try to stretch out my right hand in between shots — and that’s not going to work.”
Raonic was a semi-finalist at Wimbledon in 2014 and at the Australian Open in January. He beat Roger Federer in the semi-finals at the All England Club last month to reach his first Grand Slam final.
“I was my own worst enemy today,” Raonic said. “I tried the best I could to find my way out of it. My body didn’t let me.”
Harrison finally has the sort of breakthrough victory predicted long ago for him. He began Wednesday with a 1-26 career record against top-10 opponents.
“It’s mental maturity, a little bit of stabilization with everything around me that is allowing me to play with a sense of calm and also with excitement,” said Harrison, who turned pro nearly a decade ago and reached a top ranking of 43rd in 2012. “My personality is a very fiery one. I like to be really intense when I’m competing, flirt with that line of getting so intense that it [was] taking me away from what I was trying to accomplish.”
Novak Djokovic moved on to the third round after Jiri Vesely withdrew before their match because of injury.
In women’s singles matches, Madison Keys wrapped up a second-round win over 16-year-old Kayla Day 6-1, 6-1 in 48 minutes, while Cici Bellis rallied to beat Shelby Rogers 2-6, 6-2, 6-2 and Angelique Kerber defeated Mirjana Lucic-Baroni 6-2, 7-6 (7/5), despite blowing a 4-1 lead in the second set, forcing her to save three set points before pulling out a win in 92 minutes.
In the first round of the men’s doubles, Taiwan’s Lu Yen-hsun and partner Janko Tipsarevic of Serbia defeated Inigo Cervantes of Spain and Italy’s Paolo Lorenzi 6-4, 6-2 at the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, while Chan Hao-ching of Taiwan and Belarus’ Max Mirnyi eliminated Katarina Srebotnik of Slovenia and Henri Kontinen of Finland 6-4, 6-4 in their first-round, mixed doubles clash.
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