Class gap: what awaits the "Russian three" in the second round of the US Open

This year, the "Russian three" at the US Open are very worried. At the Masters in Montreal and Cincinnati, Daniil Medvedev, Andrey Rublev and Karen Khachanov won only two matches between them. Therefore, passing the first round in New York can already be considered a local success. It should be noted that Medvedev and Khachanov won confident victories, but Rublev was able to make a comeback from 0-2 in the match with lucky loser Otto Virtanen. We suffered only one loss in the men's draw: Roman Safiullin failed to create a sensation and beat Carlos Alcaraz for the second time in a row. The situation is noticeably worse for women.

A dangerous opponent

Recall that six-time Grand Slam champion Carlos Alcaraz played his first official singles match since April 14 and was able to take revenge on Roman Safiullin for his defeat at the Paris Masters in 2023. This is not to say that the Spaniard showed his best tennis. In the first set, Roman had a real chance to win back a break at the end of the game, in the second set he was able to take the opponent's serve in the opening, but did not hold the advantage. In the third set, Carlos had already played out — he quickly seized control of the situation and brought it to victory.

Next, Carlos will have a match with Portuguese Jamie Faria, who knocked out Jenson Brooksby. Ben Shelton, Alexander Bublik and Stefanos Tsitsipas also continue to compete in this part of the grid. The latter sensationally outplayed Cincinnati 2026 winner Artur Fis.

Andrei Rublev could have left the tournament even more loudly, but the Russian still put the squeeze on Otto Virtanen after losing two sets in a row in a tiebreak. Rublev easily won the third and fourth games, and in the fifth he played a matchball and qualified for the second round in the championship tiebreak. Hopefully, after almost four hours on the court, he will be able to recover in time for the next match, where he will play the 39th racket of the world Daniel Merida.

The 21-year-old Spaniard is progressing rapidly this season (title in Umaga, quarterfinals in Montreal) and demonstrates excellent readiness for hard surfaces. In the first round of the 2026 US Open, Daniel confidently beat the experienced Hungarian Marton Fucovic. Merida performed well on the first serve, showed high accuracy in the draws on the back line and spent a minimum of effort to reach the next stage.

Merida has won seven of his last nine meetings on the hard court and poses a great danger to Rublev. On the other hand, Andrey's class is definitely higher.

Merida has only two wins in the main draw of the majors — the pressure can take its toll on him. Especially if the match drags on.

From the third to the 731st

Karen Khachanov has an even more serious opponent. In the first round, the Russian broke a series of four defeats in a row in a match with Roman Burruchaga, allowing the Argentine to take only four games, and closed the second set with a "steering wheel". Next, he will play with the third seed Felix Auger-Alliassim. In personal meetings, the score is 2-2, and the Canadian, despite his high seeding, has never been stable. This year, he was eliminated in the first round of the Australian Open by Nuno Borges, losing in the early stages to Terence Atman in Miami, Alexander Bloks in Madrid, Mariano Navone in Rome, Aleksandar Kovacevich in Hamburg, Kamil Maichshak in 'S-Hertogenbosch. Why doesn't Khachanov add to this list and make an update that will help him to believe in himself again.

But Daniil Medvedev will have a very unexpected opponent in the second round — the 731st racket of the world Sebastian Gorzny. The 22-year-old American passed the 38th racket of the world by Rafael Collignon, having played four matchballs with the score 5:6 in the decisive set, and then another one in the tiebreak. Gorzny is playing in a Grand Slam tournament for the first time, he got into the main draw by wild card. Overall, Sebastian played his second match at the tour level. Earlier, he lost to Cruz Hewitt at the start of the ATP 250 in Winston-Salem. So let's hope for an easy victory for Daniel before a potential meeting with Artur Rinderknesh or Jaume Munyar.

In the women's draw, we have already lost Lyudmila Samsonova, Anna Blinkova, Anastasia Zakharova, Kristina Lyutova and Alina Korneeva. Anna Kalinskaya (who won the derby against Blinkova), Ekaterina Alexandrova, Polina Yatsenko and Diana Schneider earned tickets to the second round. The latter beat Ukrainian Daria Snigur with a "steering wheel" in the first set and 6-4 in the second. For Diana, this is the fifth set she has won at a Grand Slam tournament. The 22-year-old Schneider completed a lap on a Helmet for the 11th time (her balance at this stage is 11:3). Next, the Russian will play with Karolina Pliskova, Yatsenko will face the reigning champion Arina Sobolenko, Alexandrova — with Australian Kimberly Birrell, and Kalinskaya — with Chinese Wang Xinyu.