NEW YORK — Aryna Sabalenka came to the U.S. Open struggling and in danger of losing the No. 1 singles ranking on the WTA Tour.
She heads to the third round of the year’s final Grand Slam tennis tournament looking every bit ready for a three-peat.
Top-seeded Sabalenka overwhelmed Polina Iatcenko, 6-1, 6-1, in 53 minutes Wednesday night, putting on a power-hitting display that made it seem her recent problems are in the past.
“Happy with the level I played today, happy with the focus and happy to be through this match,” the 28-year-old from Belarus said.
A number of players have finished only one match this week.
Another rainy afternoon in New York suspended play for a time on outside courts, allowing action only under the roofs in Arthur Ashe Stadium and Louis Armstrong Stadium to continue uninterrupted. So the players scheduled there avoided the starts and stops that others faced.
Third-seeded Jessica Pegula was one of them, needing only 56 minutes to defeat Sofia Kenin, 6-3, 6-1. Kenin, the 2020 Australian Open champion, beat Venus Williams in her first match.
“To be out of there in under an hour, it doesn’t always happen,” Pegula said. “So I think I’m just going to take that one and run, I guess, until the next round.”
Ben Shelton, the No. 8 seed in men’s singles, followed Pegula on Ashe and beat Hubert Hurkacz, 6-3, 5-7, 7-6 (3), 7-5, while No. 7 Daniil Medvedev raced past Sebastian Gorzny — except for a brief delay to protest the chair umpire’s decision to replay a point when two birds sat on the net — 6-3, 6-3, 7-5.
Reigning men’s singles champion Carlos Alcaraz, his bracket’s No. 2 seed, followed Sabalenka in Arthur Ashe Stadium and beat Jaime Faria, 4-6, 6-0, 6-3, 6-2. He didn’t deliver the type of speedy victory Sabalenka or Pegula enjoyed, but the Spanish star showed some quick resilience by winning eight straight games.
“I wanted to be quick, to be honest. I’m not going to lie,” said Alcaraz, who returned to action at the U.S. Open after missing four month due to a wrist injury he said is fully healed. “But at the end, I realized that just playing four sets, it was really good for me to test everything physically, to test my body, how I feel, and tomorrow how I’m going to feel after this match.”
Sabalenka is trying to become the first player to win three singles titles in a row in Flushing Meadows since Serena Williams from 2012-14, but she arrived after losing in the fourth round of her past three tournaments. She needs help to stay atop the women’s tour’s singles rankings even if she wins the title.
She won 15 of 16 points on first serve in the first set and only dropped off a little in the second, finishing 21-for-28 in the match, doing so against an opponent who is playing in her first major tournament.
“I think I struggled a little bit in the middle of the season. Once again, I’m not going to defend myself or explain why, what happened, but I’m happy with my level,” Sabalenka said. “I can definitely say that mentally I’m way stronger than I was in the middle of the season, and physically I also feel stronger. So I feel like I’m on my level of play.”
When the U.S. Open switched to a Sunday start last year, it spread out the first round over the first three days, so Wednesday would have arrived with everyone playing in the second round had the weather cooperated.
It hadn’t.
Alex de Minaur, the No. 6 seed in men’s singles, said with all the juggling his match was moved twice from the court where he was originally scheduled. The Australian player finally started his U.S. Open on Wednesday on Court 11 and beat Italy’s Andrea Guerrieri 6-2, 6-2, 6-4.
“It’s been a couple tough days. But I mean, these tournaments, it’s all about adapting, and that’s the name of the game,” de Minaur said. “There’s too much to play for to let something like this affect you.”
Paula Badosa said she didn’t even know how to prepare for the resumption of her match against Daria Kasatkina, which was halted Tuesday with her one game from winning to set up a second-round match against No. 4 Coco Gauff.
“I didn’t know if I was going to play just two points or six, or I don’t know how much, how many I play or one more set,” Badosa said Wednesday after finishing off her 6-1, 6-4 victory.
“So I knew that if I was winning this match, I’m playing the next day. So, yeah, it was everything a bit different. I was very nervous that I even couldn’t eat, so a lot of different stuff I did today, but sometimes it is how it is, and I tried to play with the things I had there.”
At least she got through. No. 12 Rafael Jodar, the 19-year-old from Spain who came in after a strong summer, was routed 6-2, 6-1, 6-1 by Bu Yunchaokete of China when his first-round match was finally completed.
“I knew it wasn’t going to be easy because I was waiting a lot yesterday and today as well, but it is what it is,” Jodar said. “We cannot control the rain, so it’s difficult for both players.”
The first round was finally completed late Wednesday, a day when 25 men’s singles matches were scheduled to get the tournament back on track.
Alex Michelsen pulled off an upset in one of them by ousting fellow American player Brandon Nakashima, the No. 16 seed, 6-3, 6-4, 6-4. No. 11 Frances Tiafoe beat Japanese qualifier Rei Sakamoto in straight sets, and Mariano Navone backed up his upset of Novak Djokovic by beating Matteo Berrettini 3-6, 6-3, 6-4, 7-6 (4).
No. 7 Karolina Muchova, the Wimbledon women’s singles runner-up, beat Katie Boulter 6-1, 6-0 to reach the third round, while No. 11 Marta Kostyuk got past 2017 U.S. Open champion Sloane Stephens, 6-1, 7-5. No. 31 seed Leylah Fernandez set up a matchup of past U.S. Open runners-up against Pegula, with the winner to meet either No. 16 Sorana Cirstea or No. 19 Jasmine Paolini.