NEW YORK (AP) — The Latest on the U.S. Open tennis tournament (all times local):
11:20 p.m.
Nick Kyrgios will learn what he can “just do” with his shirt collar before his next match.
Kyrgios came out for his second-round match at Flushing Meadows wearing a white Nike shirt with the words “JUST DO YOU” on the back of the collar. However, he was told he had to play with the collar down so the words were not visible.
Kyrgios believes he should be allowed to show the wording, saying it “wasn’t anything to do with a marketing thing” but rather a design. If it were Nike’s actual slogan, which is “JUST DO IT,” the letters would have been too big to allow under the Grand Slam rules about logo size.
The 28th-seeded Australian said after his victory over Antoine Hoang that he was told he can wear the collar up going forward, but that hasn’t been determined yet. U.S. Tennis Association spokesman Chris Widmaier says tournament officials and Nike will review the shirt Friday and rule whether it is within specifications.
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9:50 p.m.
Coco Gauff has become the youngest player to reach the U.S. Open’s third round since 1996 — and set up a showdown against No. 1 seed and defending champion Naomi Osaka.
Gauff, a 15-year-old from Florida, edged Timea Babos of Hungary 6-2, 4-6, 6-4 by breaking in the last game of the nearly 2½-hour match at Louis Armstrong Stadium.
The partisan crowd backed Gauff loudly, chanting “Let’s go, Coco!” during the final changeover.
She is putting together another captivating run, just like she did on the way to the fourth round at Wimbledon last month in her Grand Slam debut.
Gauff vs. Osaka is scheduled for Saturday.
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9:35 p.m.
No. 19 seed Caroline Wozniacki advanced to the third round of the U.S. Open, fighting back a challenge from American Danielle Collins to win 4-6, 6-3, 6-4.
Wozniacki, last year’s Australian Open champ and a two-time runner-up at Flushing Meadows, struggled to find her rhythm early against the hard-hitting Collins. But she settled down in the next two sets, while the 35th-ranked Collins became more erratic, making 18 unforced errors in the final set and 46 for the match. Wozniacki closed out the final game at love with a backhand down-the-line winner.
Wozniacki moves on to play No. 15 Bianca Andreescu of Canada.
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8:40 p.m.
Nick Kyrgios had a relatively easy victory in his first match since saying the ATP was “corrupt,” beating Antoine Hoang 6-4, 6-2, 6-4 to reach the third round.
The No. 28 seed wrapped up the match in just under 2 hours, a few minutes after briefly losing his temper when he thought Hoang was allowed to challenge a call too long after the point had ended. He argued with the chair umpire and then asked for an explanation from a supervisor, but then got himself refocused and soon closed it out.
The ATP is considering whether to punish Kyrgios for a “major offense” after his comments about the tour following his first-round victory. The ATP had fined him more than $100,000 for his behavior during a match last month, and in response to a question about it Krygios said the tour was “corrupt.” He later sent out a tweet saying he had used an incorrect choice of words.
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7:10 p.m.
Second-seeded Rafael Nadal advanced to the third round of the U.S. Open with a walkover after second-round opponent Thanasi Kokkinakis pulled out before their match with a right shoulder injury.
Kokkinakis, a wild card from Australia ranked No. 203, also retired from the first round of this year’s Australian Open with the same injury.
Nadal’s match in Arthur Ashe Stadium will be replaced by a second-round contest between No. 22 Marin Cilic and Cedrick-Marcel Stebe that was previously scheduled in Louis Armstrong Stadium.
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6:10 p.m.
Taylor Townsend unleashed an aggressive net game — coming forward more than 100 times — to upset fourth-seeded Simona Halep 2-6, 6-3, 7-6 (4) and move into the third round of the U.S. Open.
Townsend, a 116th-ranked American who hasn’t always lived up to expectations, took a big step toward turning that around by employing an aggressive serve and volley, chip-and-charge game that’s a rarity on the baseline-centric women’s tour.
Townsend moved in against the Wimbledon champion at every chance. She came to the net 106 times, 64 in the deciding set alone, and it paid off, winning 60 percent of those points. By contrast, Halep came forward just 10 times.
Fittingly, Townsend served and volleyed on match point, snapping a sharp forehand volley to Halep’s backhand that she put into the net.
Next up for Townsend is Sorana Cirstea, who won in straight sets earlier over Aliona Bolsova.
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4:25 p.m.
Carla Suárez Navarro has been fined $40,000 at the U.S. Open after retiring from her first-round match with a lower-back injury.
The Spaniard had been seeded 28th at the tournament.
Suárez Navarro stopped playing Tuesday after losing the first set of her match against Timea Babos by a 6-2 score.
Tournament referee Soeren Friemel says Suárez Navarro “did not perform to the required professional standards” and was fined for violating the first-round performance rule.
The rule was instituted before last season to keep players who are injured from entering tournaments anyway to collect prize money and then quitting during a match. A first-round loser in singles at the U.S. Open is paid $58,000.
Suárez Navarro also retired from a match at the hard-court tournament in Toronto earlier this month.
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3:35 p.m.
No. 6 seed Alexander Zverev keeps playing five-set matches — and keeps winning them. Frances Tiafoe? Not so much.
Zverev reached the third round at Flushing Meadows with his second five-setter of the week, edging Tiafoe 6-3, 3-6, 6-2, 2-6, 6-3 to improve to 5-0 in matches that go the distance in 2019.
Says Zverev: “It’s usually what I do. The first few rounds at majors, I play five sets.”
Tiafoe, a 21-year-old American ranked 45th, dropped to 1-8 in fifth sets for his career.
That includes losses of that length in three of his past four U.S. Opens.
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2:30 p.m.
With Colin Kaepernick and Kobe Bryant looking on in her courtside box, defending champion Naomi Osaka stormed to a 6-2, 6-4 victory over Magda Linette to advance to the U.S. Open third round.
Osaka, who needed three sets to beat first-round opponent Anna Blinkova, said afterward she was just happy she didn’t have to go the distance again. And she said she was relieved that her celebrity admirers didn’t have to endure a long afternoon in the hot sun.
Osaka’s victory sets up the possibility of an intriguing next match. If Coco Gauff is able to beat Timea Babos later, the 15-year-old American rising star would get her first shot against the No. 1 Osaka.
Despite wearing a brace on what has been a problematic left knee, Osaka looked strong from the baseline and was never in serious trouble on the shade-shrouded Louis Armstrong Stadium court. She put away an easy volley on match point to seal the victory over the No. 53rd-ranked Linette, who beat Osaka on tour last year and won the tuneup tournament in the Bronx just before Flushing Meadows.
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1 p.m.
Andrea Petkovic started the day at the U.S. Open with an upset, beating No. 6 seed Petra Kvitova 6-4, 6-4.
Kvitova, a two-time Wimbledon champion, could never get into a rhythm from the baseline or the net and piled up 32 unforced errors. The last came on match point, when Kvitova shanked an overhead off her racket frame wide.
For Petkovic, a German ranked No. 88, it was only the second time she has scored back-to-back main draw victories this year.
Next up for Petkovic is either No. 25 Elise Mertens or Kristyna Pliskova.
In other early results, 15th-seeded David Goffin beat Gregoire Barrere 6-2, 6-2, 6-2 in less than an hour and a half, and No. 20 Sofia Kenin downed Laura Siegemund 7-6 (4), 6-0.
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11:15 a.m.
Play has begun at the U.S. Open under sunny skies, an expected high of 84 degrees (29 degrees Celsius) and no rain in the forecast.
Early matches from Petra Kvitova and Alexander Zverev kick off a stuffed slate of 75 contests in singles and doubles to make up for a Wednesday lineup that was washed out by rain except for the two show courts with retractable roofs.
Highlights include a second-round night match in Louis Armstrong Stadium between 15-year-old American Coco Gauff and Hungarian Timea Babos. Top-seeded Naomi Osaka plays there earlier against Magda Linette. If both Gauff and Osaka win, they would face each other in the third round on the weekend.
On the men’s side, second-seeded Rafael Nadal faces Thanasi Kokkinakis in the late match on Ashe, No. 5 Daniil Medvedev plays Hugo Dellien and Nick Kyrgios takes on Antoine Hoang.
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10 a.m.
Coco Gauff has a match at night and a possible showdown with Naomi Osaka if she wins it.
And the U.S. Open has some catching up to do.
Gauff and Osaka are in action during a fourth day of play that will be a little busier than usual as tournament officials try to reschedule matches that were postponed by rain Wednesday.
Gauff, who reached the fourth round at Wimbledon, opens the Thursday night session on Louis Armstrong Stadium against Timea Babos. Osaka plays there earlier against Magda Linette. If both win, it’s the 15-year-old Gauff against the top-ranked defending champion in the third round on the weekend.
Rafael Nadal and his upset-filled half of the men’s bracket are scheduled to play, along with Wimbledon champion Simona Halep and Caroline Wozniacki.
By Steve Carpenter – Hutchinson CC Sports Information
By DAVE SKRETTA
