US Open 2026: Sweeny shocks Musetti, Auger-Aliassime out; Keys, Osaka and Swiatek through – live

Having trailed 2-0 in the second set, Andreeva is accelerating to victory, winning five games on the spin, and she's serving for the match at 6-0, 5-2. Andreeva double faults for 15-all and Lys lasers a forehand winner down the line for 15-30! Lys has got Andreeva on the ropes on the next point too, but flaps at a smash and nets. And 30-all turns into 40-30 …

From a break down in the second set, Andreeva is now a break up, leading 6-0, 3-2. Alexei Popyrin has followed Tristan Schoolkate out of the tournament, losing 2-6, 7-6, 7-6-2 to Chile's Alejandro Tabilo, but there was an Australian win earlier, for Dane Sweeny against an out-of-sorts Lorenzo Musetti, and there's still a strong chance of another, with Alex de Minaur just getting under way against the Dutchman Botic van de Zandschulp.

Zheng Qinwen has seen off Yulia Putintseva, 6-4, 2-6, 6-1, and the 2024 Olympic champion, who had to come through qualifying after elbow surgery, will play Madison Keys next. And Zheng will be followed on Court 12 by … Zheng. Michael Zheng, that is, the American wildcard who takes on the lucky loser Bu Yunchaokete, who took out Rafael Jodar in round one. So this is a match of huge opportunity for both players, as they seek to reach the third round of the US Open for the first time.

And Lys then breaks for 2-0! How quickly momentum can shift, especially in women's matches, even though I'm sure Andreeva will prove once more that she has too much much quality for the world No 98. After winning her first grand slam in June, Andreeva has had a fairly subdued summer on the hard courts, but she looked strong in the opening round, and is handed a route back into this second set when Lys serves up no less than three double faults in one game. So it's Andreeva 6-0, 1-2.

They do make a good bagel in New York and Mirra Andreeva has served one up to the poor Eva Lys on Stadium 17. But the biggest cheer of the match comes when Lys finally gets on the board in the opening game of the second set. So Andreeva, the French Open champion, leads the German 6-0, 0-1.

Schoolkate is down and quite possibly out, as he falls on the court trying to hit a forehand, giving Cobolli two match points at 40-15. And the Italian seals it with an ace! Having conceded the opening set, Cobolli will be relieved to avoid another five-set match, after his first-round escape act from two sets down. Last year Cobolli faded quickly in the third round after two successive five-setters. He'll face the winner of Alexander Blockx v Marco Trungelliti in round three this time. Blockx leads 6-3, 6-2, 3-6.

Schoolkate smacks away possibly his best shot of the day – it's not only Cobolli who's making the highlights reel – but the fine forehand is in vain, as Cobolli sends down a second-serve ace to hold for 5-5. It leaves Cobolli potentially two games from victory, at 3-6, 6-3, 6-4, 5-5, and he's two points from breaking when Schoolkate's shot skids just wide for 15-30. Fine margins. Cobolli conjures up an improbable forehand winner – his 40th winner of the day – and it's 15-40, two break points! And he takes the first with a perfect lob! The fifth seed will serve for the match at 6-5.

Speaking of Osaka, here's Tumaini's take on her uneven win:

For a second consecutive match at the US Open, Naomi Osaka appeared to be cruising. Everything was in hand as the two-time champion established a set and a break lead in her round two match against Katerina Siniakova, an uneventful return to the third round beckoning.

Instead of carrying that great momentum forward until the end, though, Osaka was overcome by tension in the final stages of second set and she soon found herself in a decider. It took a significant amount of resilience and restraint for her to reset and find a way through to the third round with a comprehensive final set to win 6-2, 5-7, 6-1.

Before the North American hard-court swing, a period that yielded US Open titles in 2018 and 2020, Osaka finally looked like a grand slam contender again. After years of struggling through the clay- and grass-court seasons, seemingly just waiting for the hard courts to return, this year Osaka produced career-best showings on those surfaces to the fourth round at the French Open and quarter-finals at Wimbledon.

Her level on grass at Wimbledon, a surface she has toiled on for much of her career, was particularly impressive as she defeated the world No 1, Aryna Sabalenka, in round four. Osaka ran out of steam in the quarter-finals, fatigue seeping in after she reached the Bad Homburg final a week earlier, but it was some of the best tennis she had played since winning her last grand slam title at the Australian Open in 2021. She headed back to North America full of confidence.

Elevated expectations can naturally lead to greater pressure and Osaka's first two wins in New York this year are perhaps a reflection of the additional weight on her shoulders. In her 7-6 (6), 7-6 (3) first-round win over Anastasia Zakharova, a nervous Osaka squandered a break in both sets before barely dragging herself over the line in two tie-breaks. This time her nerves cost her a set. The most important thing about the early stages of the grand slam tournaments for the top players, though, is simply finding a way to win and offering themselves an opportunity to unleash their top form in later rounds.

The full match report is here:

The women's seeds are faring better, despite scares for Naomi Osaka and Madison Keys today:

12 Bencic
20 Chwalinska
27 Krejcikova
28 Bejlek
30 Ostapenko

Musetti's exit, after Felix Auger-Aliassime's earlier today, means this is the updated list of beaten men's seeds:

3 Auger-Aliassime
4 Djokovic
10 Fils
12 Jodar
13 Musetti
16 Nakashima
23 Rublev
29 Norrie
30 Arnaldi

News of another win, this one for Jakub Mensik, the 17th seed, whose grand slam results keep on getting better and better. He'll face Gael Monfils or Learner Tien next, who play on Louis Armstrong in the first match of the night session. Mensik has already enjoyed success at this year's tournament, having won the mixed doubles last week, and Martina Navratilova, no less, has the Czech as her dark horse for the singles title.

And Sweeny does it, reaching the third round of a slam for the first time on his US Open debut! The world No 123, who needed a wildcard to take his place in the draw, soaks in the moment, before running around the court picking up all the towels he can find, to give them to his fans, before taking time to sign several autographs. What a considerate guy he is. “I'm far from perfect,†he says, though, in his on-court interview, with the interviewer absolutely towering over the 5ft 7in Australian. But he's taken big strides today.

Musetti, grimacing and sitting on the advertising boards between points, is now 4-2 down in the fourth set, and he's bent over double when he's taken to deuce on his serve. Does he have anything left? It seems not, because he surrenders the break with a tired forehand, meaning Sweeny will serve for the biggest win of his career at 3-6, 6-1, 6-2, 5-2 … just as Cobolli finishes the third set with a flourish, serving it out to love, for a 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 lead.

Cobolli has the third set in his sights, leading Schoolkate 3-6, 6-3, 5-3, and the French Open runner-up is applying the pressure on Schoolkate's serve at 0-15. Schoolkate decides to take matters into his own hands by coming to the net, but it doesn't pay off. But the Australian comes back for 30-all and holds his nerve to close out the game from there. And all of this comes after this …

Still to come today: the 22-year-old American wildcard Michael Zheng, the two-time NCAA champion who recently graduated from nearby Columbia University – not that he was at his graduation ceremony in May, because he was busy qualifying for the French Open, after a remarkable rise in the senior ranks. Bryan wrote this yesterday after Zheng's first-round win:

Michael Zheng spent years making the long trek from northern New Jersey, first by bus across the Hudson River to the Port Authority bus terminal and then nearly the full length of the No 7 subway line, all for the opportunity to train at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center. On a rainswept Wednesday afternoon in Queens, the destination was the same but the purpose had changed entirely.

The 22-year-old American wildcard and two-time NCAA champion from nearby Columbia University brushed aside Hungary's Fabian Marozsan 6-4, 6-4, 6-2 to win his rain-delayed US Open debut, providing one of the more unlikely highlights on a busy day for the home contingent in New York.

Playing before a vocal crowd of his college teammates and alumni who splashed the intimate confines of Court 10 with blue and white, Zheng needed only 1hr 51min to dispatch of the world No 63, breaking five times and dropping serve only once. He hit nearly twice as many winners (33) as unforced errors (17) and was especially ruthless on his first serve, winning all but three of 39 points (92.3%) over three sets.

“It just felt like a college tennis match, really,†Zheng said. “My teammates came out. They had the ‘Let's go, Michael' chants, and I'm not sure my opponent was ready for it.â€

He added: “This is a place I grew up training. It was one of the first places that I kind of called home base, actually, the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center. So it's really special to get that first main-draw win here and in front of my family, friends and teammates as well.â€

Long before Wednesday's win, Zheng was a 10-year-old making the roughly two-hour commute from his home in Montville, New Jersey, several times a week to cut his teeth at the national center. His mother would collect him from school and drop him at a nearby bus stop, leaving him to travel alone through Manhattan into Queens to practice on the blue courts in the shadows of Arthur Ashe and Louis Armstrong stadiums.

You can read the rest here:

But no sooner does Musetti break than he is broken, and it leaves Sweeny serving for the set at 5-2, at which point my wifi gives up, perhaps out of sympathy for the out-of-sorts Italian. The connection dips back in, just as Musetti bashes a backhand well wide on set point, and by the time it rouses itself into action again, Musetti is already a break down in the fourth set, trailing 3-6, 6-1, 6-2, 2-0. Sweeny is closing in on his first third-round appearance at a major.

Musetti digs deep to get one of the breaks back for 2-4. Meanwhile Jakub Mensik, the mixed doubles champion alongside his fellow Czech Karolina Muchova last week, who had a breakout run to the French Open semi-finals this summer and has long been seen as a talent who could one day challenge Alcaraz and Sinner, is 6-3, 3-6, 6-2 up on Austria's Jurij Rodionov. And Zheng Qinwen, the reigning Olympic champion, leads Yulia Putintseva 6-4.

In the other Italy v Australia match, Cobolli has levelled against Schoolkate, winning the second set 6-3, while a third Australian, Alexei Popyrin, the conqueror of Grigor Dimitrov in the first round, is tied at one set all, 6-2, 6-7, against Chile's Alejandro Tabilo.

Ach. Musetti has had so many problems with injuries this year, and he's ailing against Sweeny, trailing 3-1 in the third set, having lost the second 6-1 and winning the first 6-3. He can't catch a break. It's not clear if it's another injury, or illness, but he's in danger of going a double break down at 30-40 on his serve. He coughs up a double fault and Sweeny leads 3-6, 6-1, 4-1.

So what is Eala most happy with about the win? “I think my patience and consistency of my focus. I think that was the key to winning the match,†the 2022 US Open junior champion says, before telling the crowd how proud she is to represent the Philippines and how she tries “to live life with positivity and happinessâ€. She really does speak with maturity beyond her years. When asked about her next opponent, she replies: “Who I play in the next round is out of my control but both are great friends of mine. All I can do is wish them a great match.â€

Eala has two match points at 6-1, 5-4, 40-15 … but she gets a little over-excited and hits beyond the baseline. She readies herself for the second match point with a few practice swings, and it works, because she gets the job done, gaining revenge for her defeat by Oliynykova in Strasbourg this year. Next up the Filipino trailblazer could have an absolute cracker against another player tipped for the top, Iva Jovic. Though Britain's Fran Jones will hope to stop that from happening. Jovic v Jones play later.

Fritz soon has match point at 15-40, and the American finishes the most one-sided victory of his grand slam career with, somewhat appropriately, another huge forehand winner. The 2024 finalist's problem this season has been staying fit, but he's reminded us how dangerous he is when he's close to full health. With questions over Carlos Alcaraz's fitness, Jannik Sinner's absence and Novak Djokovic's exit, could he go all the way and become the first American man to win this title since 2003?

Eala is edging closer to the finish line, at 6-1, 4-3 and 40-0 on serve, but she may not get there before Fritz, who's close to putting Bellucci out of his misery at 6-0, 6-1, 5-1, with Bellucci serving at 15-30.

Some more highlights for you:

There's been some turnaround between Musetti and Sweeny, with Sweeny, the Australian wildcard, quite literally flying through the second set, taking it 6-1 and pulling off his best impression of Boris Becker along the way:

So it's Musetti 6-3, 1-6 Sweeny.

We're hearing that Venus and Serena Williams's first-round doubles match will take place, as expected, in the night session on Arthur Ashe tomorrow, with Ben Shelton v Denis Shapovalov to follow. Carlos Alcaraz and Aryna Sabalenka play in the day session, as do Jessica Pegula, Daniil Medvedev, Karolina Muchova, Stefanos Tsitsipas, Alexander Bublik, Jasmine Paolini, Marta Kostyuk and the Wimbledon champion Linda Noskova – with Frances Tiafoe and Elina Svitolina in the night session on Louis Armstrong.

It's Italy v Australia on Stadium 17 and Grandstand: Musetti has taken the first set against Sweeny, 6-3, but Musetti's good friend Flavio Cobolli has started slowly and trails Tristan Schoolkate 4-2 in the opener. That will feel like nothing to Cobolli, though, given he did something he'd never done before in his career to reach this second round, coming from two sets to love down to win on Tuesday.

Fritz, meanwhile, is absolutely flying, now 6-0, 6-1 ahead against Bellucci, with Argentina's 24th seed Francisco Cerundolo waiting in round three. This summer's Queen's champion has just survived a near four-hour, five-set encounter against the German veteran Jan-Lennard Struff, winning 5-7, 7-5, 4-6, 6-2, 6-3.

15-0, 30-0, 40-0, game and first set Eala 6-1. She's locked in and looking in exceptionally good form. Having won the Washington DC title in the build-up to the US Open, could she mount a serious challenge this fortnight, having never previously been beyond the last 16 of a slam? It's possible – though I'd argue that it's probably too soon for the 21-year-old to put seven wins together. Imagine if/when that day comes though, she'll be rivalling Manny Pacquiao's rarefied status in the Philippines …

Thanks Daniel. Right, having fuelled up on a $40 lobster roll and some $100 caviar-flecked chicken nuggets some slightly bland chicken and salad, I'm ready for the rest of the day session. Eala concedes her first break but still leads 4-1, and is pushing to restore her double break at 15-40 on Oliynykova's serve. A backhand return – which is nearly as big as all the talk about the Filipino's fame and fans – secures it. Eala's cruising at 5-1.

Eala is hitting it beautifully with power and slice, breaking Oliynykova a second time to lead 4-0, and already it's hard not to look forward to her potential third-round match with Iva Jovic as a potential banger. Anyhow, that's for the future; for the now, I'm off as Katy is here to hang for the next bit. Ta-ra.

Our men's seeds are moving, Mensik up 5-2 on Rodionov, Musetti up 5-3 on Sweeny, and Ceriundolo leading Struff 5-3 in the fifth.

Eala, though, has started well, holding then breaking for 2-0. I've really enjoyed her arrival on to the scene, and I think she has the ability to beat good players, but if she can't put some meat on to her serve, she's already quite close to her ceiling. Oh, and Bellucci holds to win his first game; he trails Fritz 0-6 1-1.