NEW YORK— Frances Tiafoe is getting the rematch he wants, a second shot at Ben Shelton at the U.S. Open.
But there won’t be a second straight Grand Slam title for Barbora Krejcikova.
The Wimbledon champion was knocked out of the U.S. Open in the second round on Wednesday, defeated by Elena-Gabriela Ruse 6-4, 7-5.
The No. 8-seeded Krejcikova won her second Grand Slam singles title this summer, but then she didn’t play any matches after the Paris Olympics. She acknowledged last week not knowing where her level of play was.
Turns out, it wasn’t good enough.
“I mean, winning Wimbledon is amazing. It’s a great, great, great result, I’m very proud about it and how I was able to handle everything there,” said Krejcikova, who hadn’t played a tournament on hard courts since February.
“I think I was playing quite well, definitely better than in the first match. I think my game was improving, but it just wasn’t enough.”
No woman has won Wimbledon and the U.S. Open in the same year since Serena Williams in 2012.
Tiafoe had short work on the steamiest day of the tournament thus far, with temperatures in New York surpassing 90 degrees Fahrenheit (32 degrees Celsius). Three men’s matches ended when an opponent stopped playing, the last one sending defending champion Novak Djokovic to the third round when Laslo Djere retired early in the third set with what appeared to be pain near his hip after they played for more than two hours across the first two sets.
“You know, in the end, not the kind of finish that we players or crowd wants to see, but I think it’s probably due to that physical battle that we had in the opening two sets,” the No. 2-seeded Djokovic said.
Tiafoe, the No. 20 seed, won the first two sets before his opponent, Alexander Shevchenko, retired after the first game of the third set.
Shelton, the No. 13 seed, later beat Roberto Bautista Agut 6-3, 6-4, 6-4. He ousted Tiafoe last year in the quarterfinals, stopping Tiafoe from what would have been a second straight trip to the U.S. Open semifinals.
“Obviously he’s very much like me in how excited and energetic he is on the court,” Tiafoe said, “and has such a big game and big shots and serves big and gets the crowd going.”
Well, maybe not quite as well as Tiafoe does.
“I know that the people love him here. Probably more than me. He’s electric here, and his crowds are electric here,” the 21-year-old Shelton said.
“It will be a battle. It will be a war just like the last two times we’ve played. Yeah, I’m more than excited to be out there with him again.”
They were two of the four American men to reach the third round in the bottom half of the draw. No. 12 Taylor Fritz got there by beating Matteo Berrettini 6-3, 7-6 (1), 6-1, while Brandon Nakashima beat Arthur Cazaux and will next play No. 18 Lozenzo Musetti, the bronze medalist at the Olympics.
Defending champion Coco Gauff marched into the third round on the women’s side with a 6-4, 6-0 victory over Tatjana Maria. The No. 3 seed will next face No. 27 seed Elina Svitolina.
Ruse, a 26-year-old from Romania, advanced to the third round of a Grand Slam for the first time and will play No. 26 seed Paula Badosa, who eliminated American Taylor Townsend 6-3, 7-5.
Jiri Lehecka ignored the heat to engineer the biggest comeback of his career, rallying to beat Mitchell Krueger 6-7 (5), 0-6, 6-4, 6-4, 7-5 in a match that finished a minute shy of four hours. Lehecka, the No. 32 seed, not only came from two sets down for the first time in his career, but he was even down 3-0 in the third set against the American qualifier.
“I kind of dug back into the match with a big fight, and then the fourth set and fifth set was just a battle and we were both fighting for every point,” Lehecka said.
He will face No. 6 seed Andrey Rublev, who also came from two sets down to outlast Arthur Rinderknech 4-6, 5-7, 6-1, 6-2, 6-2.
Past U.S. Open finalists Aryna Sabalenka and Alexander Zverev both won their matches in straight sets, while Olympic gold medalist Zheng Qinwen, the No. 7 seed, rallied passed Erika Andreeva in three sets. But No. 12 Daria Kasatkina was upset by American Peyton Stearns, who will next face No. 24 seed and Olympic silver medalist Donna Vekic.
Another women’s third-round match will see No. 14 seed Madison Keys against No. 33 Elise Mertens. Keys, the 2017 runner-up in Flushing Meadows, rolled past Maya Joint 6-4, 6-0, while Mertens knocked out Ajla Tomljanovic 6-3, 6-2.
