Five statement wins from first round of 2023 U.S. Open

The first round of the 2023 United States Open in tennis is now complete. Here are five players who came away with statement wins.

Stefanos Tsitsipas

At Louis Armstrong Stadium on Monday, Tsitsipas won a battle of grand slam finalists. Known as the Greek God, Tsitsipas, the seventh seed, and 2021 French Open finalist and 2023 Australian Open finalist, beat Milos Raonic of Canada, the 2016 Wimbledon finalist, 6-2, 6-3, 6-4. The fact that Tsitsipas broke Raonic five times was the story, as Raonic is known for his great serve.

Beatriz Haddad Maia

Also at Louis Armstrong Stadium on Monday, Haddad Maia of Brazil, the 2023 French Open semifinalist, beat 2017 United States Open champion Sloane Stephens of Plantation, Florida, 6-2, 5-7, 6-4. Like Tsitsipas, Haddad Maia also had success in breaking Stephens’s serve, as the Brazilian broke Stephens six times in 13 opportunities.

Mackenzie McDonald

Usually when an unseeded player plays a seeded player at a major, they are considered the underdog. However, Canada’s Felix Auger-Aliassime has not played well at all as of late, so this result was zero surprise. The first two sets were relatively tight before McDonald completely dominated the third set, and won the key game in the fourth set, to come away with a 7-6, 4-6, 6-1, 6-4 win. The story of this match came down to double faults, as McDonald had only one, while Auger-Aliassime had 11.

Auger-Aliassime, the semifinalist of the 2021 United States Open, could see a major drop in the world rankings if he does not have a great fall season. He is currently ranked 15th.

Auger-Aliassime is not the only seeded player McDonald has beaten at a grand slam event in 2023. In the second round of the 2023 Australian Open, McDonald beat the number one seed, and two-time Australian Open champion, Rafael Nadal of Spain, 6-4, 6-4. 7-5.

Dominic Thiem

Thiem, the unseeded Austrian, has not had a lot of grand slam singles success since winning the 2020 United States Open. In fact, he had lost his six grand slam matches prior to beating Kazakhstan’s Alexander Bublik, 6-3, 6-2, 6-4. The story of the match was the fact that Bublik had an inappropriate comment that could result in disciplinary action. Bublik stated the following:

"I'm fucking sick of getting all these disabled people back in their career," – Alexander Bublik about Dominic Thiem #USOpen

??? Excuse me ??? pic.twitter.com/S4Yj3RqGbu

— S. E. (@tennis_inmyhead) August 28, 2023

Yanina Wickmayer

Wickmayer of Lier, Belgium, the 2009 United States Open semifinalist, beat Vera Zvonareva of Moscow, Russia, 6-4, 6-4. Wickmayer, who is 33 years of age, beat Zvonareva, who is 38 years of age. Zvonareva reached the United States Open final and Wimbledon final in 2010.