Second seed Dominic Thiem celebrated his 27th birthday with a commanding 6-3 6-3 6-2 victory over India’s Sumit Nagal on Thursday to move into the third round of the US Open.
Austrian Thiem, seeking his maiden grand slam title, won an overwhelming 74 per cent of his first serve points and fired seven aces past the inexperienced Nagal, breaking him seven times in the two-hour contest.
On Tuesday Nagal became the first Indian in seven years to win a singles match at Flushing Meadows but the 23-year-old showed only flashes of brilliance in a one-sided clash at Arthur Ashe Stadium.
Up next for Thiem, who was runner-up at the Australian Open this year, is 2014 champion Marin Cilic of Croatia who beat Slovakia’s Norbert Gombos 6-3 1-6 7-6 (7-2) 7-5.
Spanish eighth seed Roberto Bautista Agut survived a difficult second-round match against Serbian youngster Miomir Kecmanovic with a 6-3 3-6 6-3 6-4 victory.
Bautista Agut, who could potentially play Australia’s Alex de Minaur in the fourth round, squandered 14 break point opportunities but held his nerve in crucial moments to seal victory in just over two-and-a-half hours.
Kecmanovic, making his second consecutive second-round appearance at Flushing Meadows, stepped up the pressure on Bautista Agut’s serve in the second set to force an unlikely break at 5-3 and he went on to level the match.
Bautista Agut looked largely untroubled over the next two sets, however, as he patiently carved out two breaks of serve to book a place in the third round for the first time in three years.
The world No.11 Bautista Agut has now won five of his six matches since the tour’s resumption after the COVID-19 shutdown, reaching the semi-finals at the Western & Southern Open last week where he pushed eventual champion Novak Djokovic to a final-set tiebreak.
He will next face the winner of the all-Canadian clash between Milos Raonic and Vasek Pospisil.