2009 champion Del Potro also through
Thursday 31 August 2017 07:33, UK
Nick Kyrgios and Richard Gasquet crashed out of the US Open while Grigor Dimitrov, Dominic Thiem and Gael Monfils eased into the second round.
Having seen rain wash out much of Tuesday's play, Wednesday's action got underway with a couple of early high-profile casualties led by 14th seed Kyrgios.
The 22-year-old, who reached his first Masters final in Cincinnati a couple of weeks ago, battled back from losing the first set to level his match with fellow Aussie John Millman before a shoulder injury forced a medical time-out.
Kyrgios never recovered and despite a couple of visits from the trainer, he went down to a 6-3 1-6 6-4 6-1 defeat that gave Millman his first victory at Flushing Meadows.
Seeded Fabio Fognini and Pablo Cuevas, both more comfortable on the clay courts, also fell at the first hurdle. Fognini, the 22nd seed, was beaten in four sets by fellow Italian Stefano Travaglia, while 27th seed Cuevas was beaten by the dangerous Damir Dzumhur
Also out is 26th seed Gasquet, who was beaten by lucky loser Leonardo Mayer. Despite claiming the first set, the Frenchman was beaten 3-6 6-2 6-4 6-2 but the news was better for the higher seeds in the bottom half of the draw led by Cincinnati champion Dimitrov.
Having beaten Kyrgios to claim the biggest title of his career, the Bulgarian is fancied to go far in New York and the seventh seed started in perfect fashion with a 6-1 6-4 6-2 victory over Czech qualifier Vaclav Safranek.
Thiem and Monfils were also in first-round action, and they had little trouble in advancing to the second stage.
Sixth seed Thiem lost just six games in seeing off Alex De Minaur, while in the all-French affair between Monfils and Jeremy Chardy it was 18th seed Monfils who triumphed 7-6 (8-6) 6-3 6-4, and he will next face American Donald Young.
Tomas Berdych, who has only once gone beyond the last eight at the US Open, beat American Ryan Harrison in straight sets to set up a showdown with Alexandr Dolgopolov, who defeated Jan-Lennard Struff in five sets.
2009 champion Juan Martin Del Potro is also through, seeded 24th he has a chance for a decent run at the scene of his most memorable success and while not at his best he had enough to come through 6-4 7-6 (7-3) 7-6 (7-5) against 25-year-old Henri Laaksonen.
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