Dominic Thiem’s latest bid for grand slam glory came to an abrupt end at the US Open when he fell to unseeded Thomas Fabbiano in a shock first-round exit, the biggest upset of the men’s competition so far.
Fourth-seeded Austrian Thiem’s blistering serve yielded 14 aces but it was not enough to overcome the 30-year-old Fabbiano, whose fearsome forehand helped him save nine of 10 break points he faced.
The 25-year-old Thiem did himself no favours, committing 48 unforced errors during the match in Arthur Ashe Stadium, 28 more than his Italian opponent.
“I beat a top-10 guy in Wimbledon and another one here,” said Fabbiano, who upset Stefanos Tsitsipas in their first-round meeting at the All England Club in July.
“I’m starting to like to play these big matches and my game is coming better and better.”
For Thiem the loss marks the latest frustration in his bid to claim a maiden major, after two finals losses at the French Open.
Hours earlier on Tuesday at Flushing Meadows, eighth-seeded Tsitsipas fell to Russian Andrey Rublev 6-4 6-7 (5-7) 7-6 (9-7) 7-5.
The Greek battled cramps during the fourth set of the almost four-hour match and was given a time violation for not returning to the court quickly enough during one changeover, when he argued with the chair umpire and said “you have something against me”.
Tsitsipas also said of the umpire: “You’re French probably. … You’re all weirdos.”
Rublev was coming off a rout of Roger Federer earlier this month at the Cincinnati Masters.
Meanwhile, Spanish 10th seed Roberto Bautista Agut crashed out to Kazakhstan’s Mikhail Kukushkin 3-6 6-1 6-4 3-6 6-3 while Spain’s Pablo Andujar beat 30th-seeded Briton Kyle Edmund 3-6 7-6 (7-1) 7-5 5-7 6-2.
Bautista Agut, who reached the semi-finals at Wimbledon last month, was broken seven times by Kukushkin as he exited the year’s final grand slam in the opening round for the second consecutive year.
German sixth seed Alexander Zverev avoided becoming the latest big-name casualty when he outlasted Moldovan Radu Albot 6-1 6-3 3-6 4-6 6-2.
Other seeds to advance to the second round were American John Isner, who served 29 aces in his straight-sets win over Guillermo Garcia-Lopez, Marin Cilic, Matteo Berrettini and Fernando Verdasco.
