Big-hitting Sam Groth has joined Samantha Stosur and Casey Dellacqua in the second round of the US Open on another banner day for Australians at Flushing Meadows.
Davis Cup captain Pat Rafter and coach Josh Eagle ventured to court 15 to watch Groth blast past Spaniard Albert Ramos-Vinolas 6-3 7-6 (7-5) 6-3 to give Australia a six-from-seven start to the final grand slam of the year.
Fittingly for the owner of the world’s fastest serve, Groth didn’t face one single break point in his impressive straight-sets win.
The journeyman’s reward for his maiden victory in New York is a likely second-round shot at 17-times major winner Roger Federer on Thursday.
Federer was due to face fellow Australian Marinko Matosevic in his opener on Tuesday night at Arthur Ashe Stadium.
Australia’s only two seeds this year, Stosur and Dellacqua also both enjoyed straight-sets victories on day two to join first-day winners Nick Kyrgios, Matt Ebden and Anastasia Rodionova in advancing.
Stosur launched her quest for a second title at Flushing Meadows in imposing fashion, rolling young American Lauren Davis 6-1 6-4 in just 77 minutes on the Grandstand show court.
Intent on avoiding a repeat of her disastrous first-round loss last year to 17-year-old world No.296 Victoria Duval, Stosur was on her game from the get-go.
The 24th seed broke Davis five times to book a meeting on Thursday with Estonian Kaia Kanepi.
“I’m pleased. Look, first rounds can be very tricky,” Stosur said.
“I was certainly prepared for a tough match today, but I was able to come out and play well and do exactly what I wanted to do. So that was a good feeling.”
Stosur made life particularly tough for the 157cm high Davis with her deadly second-serve kicker.
“Tactically, I probably used the right serve at the right time,” she said.
“With the way the conditions were, I was able to use my kick serve a lot and change it up and go hard and able to make her feel uncomfortable on return, which is exactly what I want to do.
“Overall, it was a pretty solid match.”
Seeded for the first time at a grand slam, Dellacqua took only slightly longer than Stosur to dispatch Austrian Patricia Mayr-Achleitner 7-5 6-3.
Dellacqua next meets Chinese qualifier Qiang Wang after also dropping serve just once in her 85-minute opener.
Ashleigh Barty has been Australia’s only loser thus far, the teenage qualifier falling 6-1 6-3 to Barbora Strycova Zahlavova, the 30th seed from the Czech Republic.
