Paula Badosa, with an impeccable performance, led the Spanish delegation to the US Open on Monday with an uneven record and as many qualifications as eliminations.
Eight Spanish tennis players (two women and six men) started off this Monday in Flushing Meadows and half of them packed their bags at the first opportunity.
Among those who will be in the second round is Badosa (n.29), who started off with excellent feelings, beating Swiss Viktorija Golubic (n.73) 6-0 and 6-3 in one hour and nine minutes.
The Catalan is coming off a great summer on hard courts in North America (title in Washington and semi-finals in Cincinnati). She will next face American Taylor Townsend (n.48) and will try to get past the second round for the first time in the ‘major’ New York event.
The other Spanish player in the competition was Marina Bassols (n. 114), who in her first match in the main draw of a ‘grand slam’ lost to the Czech Barbora Krejcikova (n. 8 and champion of the last edition of Wimbledon).
In the men’s draw, while waiting for Carlos Alcaraz (n.3) to make his debut on Tuesday, three Spanish representatives have earned their ticket to the second round.
Thus, Roberto Carballés (n.55) suffered but ended up defeating the British Jan Choinski (n.276) by 6-2, 6-3, 5-7, 6-7(5) and 6-3 in more than four and a half hours.
His next rival will be the Chinese Juncheng Shang (n.72).
Another Spaniard who also had to leave everything on the court to avoid being eliminated was Pedro Martínez (n.43), who defeated the Polish Maks Kasnikowski (n.194) by 6-7(6), 6-1, 6-2, 3-6 and 7-6(6) in four hours and 21 minutes.
The next challenge for Martínez will be the Australian Alexei Popyrin (n.28).
Roberto Bautista (n.67) will also participate in the next round, having defeated Italian Luca Nardi (n.90) 7-5, 7-6(3) and 7-6(5) in three hours and 16 minutes.
An important challenge awaits Bautista with a duel against the American Ben Shelton (n.13).
However, Pablo Carreño (n.213) lost against the French Arthur Cazaux (n.91), Alejandro Davidovich (n.59) fell against the Australian Rinky Hijikata (n.62) and Albert Ramos (n.122) could not beat the Italian Matteo Berrettini (n.44).
Djokovic continues to be in the farewell of Thiem and Schwartzman
The US Open uncorked its 2024 edition with hardly any surprises or striking results on a day in which the main favorites did not fail.
Serbian Novak Djokovic (No. 2) and American Coco Gauff (No. 3) thus began the defence of their titles from last year in Queens without any problems.
Other top contenders also advanced to the second round, such as Belarusian Aryna Sabalenka (No. 2), the aforementioned Krejcikova, German Alexander Zverev (No. 4), Russian Andrey Rublev (No. 6) and Norwegian Casper Ruud (No. 8).
However, Greek Maria Sakkari (n.9) retired due to injury and Danish Holger Rune (n.15) crashed in three sets against American Brandon Nakashima (n.50).
In addition, this Monday was a very special moment with the farewell to the New York tournament of two tennis players with splendid careers who are about to retire: the Austrian Dominic Thiem, champion of the US Open in 2020, and the Argentine Diego Schwartzman.
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