Rain delays start of play at US Open

Rain delays the start of play at the Grandstand Stadium during the US Open tennis tournament at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in New York on September 1, 2026. (Photo by ANGELA WEISS / AFP)

Rain delayed the start of play on the outside courts on Tuesday at the US Open, where top-seeded Alexander Zverev and women’s fourth seed Coco Gauff headlined first-round action.

The weather won’t be a factor for Zverev and Gauff, who are scheduled to play the night session on the covered Arthur Ashe Stadium.

Germany’s Zverev, who followed up his maiden Grand Slam title with a runner-up finish to Jannik Sinner at Wimbledon, will take on 89th-ranked Italian Lorenzo Sonego while two-time Grand Slam champion Gauff faces Turkey’s Zeynep Sonmez.

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Play started on Ashe with former Australian Open champion Madison Keys beating 19-year-old Russian Alina Korneeva 7-5, 6-4.

In a match that featured 10 breaks of serve, Keys squandered a match point as she was broken serving for the win at 5-3 in the second.

But she secured the victory in the next game, battling back from 15-40 down and sealing the win when Korneeva fired a forehand wide.

“It’s always tough playing someone young and up-and-coming, and they’re going for their shots,” Keys, seeded 22nd, said.

“And it’s so hard to play the first round of a Grand Slam,” added the American, who crashed out in the first round at Flushing Meadows last year.

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Under the roof on Louis Armstrong, fifth-seeded French Open men’s finalist Flavio Cobolli took on Argentine Francisco Comesana and women’s fifth seed Mirra Andreeva — the Roland Garros champion — faced Indonesia’s Janice Tjen.

But reigning Australian Open champion Elena Rybakina’s opener against 17-year-old wild card Thea Frodin, scheduled on the roofless Grandstand court, was among the delayed matches.

World number two Rybakina is chasing Aryna Sabalenka’s number one ranking as well as a third Grand Slam title, having won her second in Australia in January.

She reached the final of the WTA 1000 in Toronto this month before retiring from her quarter-final in Cincinnati with a painful heel injury that left her unable to walk without pain for several days.

Frodin, ranked 585th, is making her Grand Slam debut. Although her competitive career is just beginning, her tennis talents were seen in “King Richard” the Oscar-winning film depicting Richard Williams and the rise of his daughters Serena and Venus Williams.

A 12-year-old Frodin was the stunt and body double for Demi Singleton, the actress who played young Serena.