Dominic Thiem sprinted to a winning finish as the Austrian completed a match hit by rain 24 hours earlier, posting a 6-4 6-1 6-1 defeat of Australian Alex de Minaur at the US Open.

Thiem, seeded sixth and an outside title tip in an event missing three top-10 players through injury, wasted no time in completing his rout in less than half an hour as the sun shone after a day of rain.

Organisers were trying to complete a massive 87 matches on the day to get caught up.

Thiem advanced to the second round with 20 winners, breaking on seven of his 10 chances in the one-way victory.

“Conditions between yesterday and today were really different,” the Austrian said. “My goal was to break immediately, and that’s what I did. Sets two and three yesterday and today were really good.

“There are always improvements to make, the biggest thing I have to do now is just continue like this. It was a pretty nervous start, but then it really got better.

“I’ll try to start off tomorrow like I finished yesterday and today.”

Tomas Berdych, the 15th seed, started with a win over Ryan Harrison 6-4 6-2 7-6 (7-4).

Japan’s Yuichi Sugita beat Frenchman Geoffrey Blancaneaux 6-2 6-2 6-0 while Argentinian Leonardo Mayer stopped Richard Gasquet 3-6 6-2 6-4 6-2.

Donald Young of the United States defeated Germany’s Maximillian Marterer, 6-3 1-6 6-1 6-4 and compatriot Bjorn Fratangelo also produced a home victory over Ivo Karlovic 7-6 (7-2) 6-4 3-6 7-6 (7-4).