No. 13 seed Ben Shelton of the United States ended Austrian Dominic Thiem’s U.S. Open career on Monday, beating the wild card 6-4, 6-2, 6-2 in a first-round match in New York.
Thiem, who won the U.S. Open in 2020, plans to retire this year. He received a standing ovation from fans following his loss to Shelton, which dropped him to 23-9 all-time at the fourth and final major of the season.
“It has been 10 years since I first played here. It is actually a really important moment for me, because I had my greatest success here on this court,” Thiem said. “… I am super happy I got the chance to play my last U.S. Open match on this court.”
Shelton finished with eight aces against Thiem’s two. He also won 41 of 45 first-serve points (91.1 percent).
“I want to say congrats to Domi and his team on an outstanding Grand Slam career,” Shelton said. “Four finals and a title is something only kids can dream about.”
Other seeded players to win on Monday included No. 4 Alexander Zverev of Germany, No. 6 Andrey Rublev of Russia, No. 8 Casper Ruud of Norway, No. 12 Taylor Fritz of the U.S. and No. 17 Ugo Humbert of France.
Australian Alexei Popyrin, the No. 28 seed, also prevailed, while China’s Juncheng Shang pulled off a 6-4, 3-6, 5-7, 6-3, 6-4 upset of 27th-seeded Alexander Bublik of Kazakhstan.
Spaniards Roberto Bautista Agut and Roberto Carballes Baena, Italian Matteo Berrettini, Argentina’s Francisco Comesana and American qualifier Mitchell Krueger also won their first-round matches.
Nineteen matches were scheduled to be played later Monday.
–Field Level Media
