Rogers wins longest women's match
Shelby Rogers knew she was in for a tough match, facing a quick opponent who runs down a lot of shots. More than 3 1/2 hours later, she finally won it. The 62nd-ranked American prevailed in the longest women's match in US Open history, beating No 25 Daria Gavrilova of Australia 7-6 (6), 4-6, 7-6 (5) on Thursday in the second round. "I didn't feel like it was the longest match ever," Rogers said. "But it's starting to set in a little bit now. Going to be sore." The match lasted 3 hours, 33 minutes, with Gavrilova finishing with a 133-132 edge in total points won. "Got the last one, that's all that matters," the 24-year-old Rogers said. Johanna Konta won the previous longest match, beating Garbine Muguruza in a 2015 second-round meeting that lasted 3:23. Gavrilova was asked what she thought was the difference in the match. "The two last points," she replied.
Nara upsets Kuznetsova
Japan's Kurumi Nara eliminated 2004 US Open champion Svetlana Kuznetsova 6-3, 3-6, 6-3 on Thursday night to reach the third round at Flushing Meadows for the first time since 2013. It was the first victory in nine matches against opponents ranked in the top 10 for Nara, who is No 116. "Biggest win of my career," she called it. Nara has never been past the third round at any Grand Slam tournament. She arrived in New York having a rough season, failing to qualify at any of her past three events. She also was 4-11 in 2017 before this week. But Nara broke in six of Kuznetsova's 13 service games and was steady down the stretch. "I was nervous," Nara said, but figured that her decision to play aggressively and try to move into the court as much as possible helped her. The No 8-seeded Kuznetsova's exit means five of the top eight women in the field are already gone before the third round. She joins No 2 Simona Halep, No 5 Caroline Wozniacki, No 6 Angelique Kerber and No 7 Johanna Konta. Kerber was the defending champion.
Bopanna, Mirza advance to 2nd round
India's leading doubles players Rohan Bopanna and Sania Mirza began their US Open campaigns with victories in their respective events, albeit, in contrasting fashion here. Bopanna and Uruguay's Pablo Cuevas shrugged off a surprise first set lapse to regroup and beat American pair of Bradley Klahn and Scott lipksy 1-6, 6-3, 6-4 in the opening round of the men's doubles event. In the second round they face the Italian team of Simone Bolelli and Fabio Fognini. In the women's doubles, Mirza and her Chinese partner Shuai Peng overcame the challenge of Croatian team of Petra Martic and Donna Vekic in the opening round. It took the Indo-Chinese pair just 55 minutes to cross the first hurdle. Mirza and Peng broke their rivals four times but also dropped their serve once in the match. They next face Slovakia's Jana Cepelova and Magdalena Rybarikova.