Keys, Fritz and Andreeva reached the second round of the US Open without dropping a set
Madison Keys, Taylor Fritz and Mirra Andreeva successfully opened their campaigns at the 2026 US Open in New York, with all three securing places in the second round without dropping a set. On September 1 at Arthur Ashe Stadium, Keys defeated Alina Korneeva 7:5, 6:4, Fritz beat Darwin Blanch 6:3, 6:2, 6:4 at the same stadium, while Andreeva outplayed Janice Tjen 6:2, 6:2 at Louis Armstrong Stadium. According to official US Open reports, all three matches were completed without major complications on the scoreboard, although their opponents managed at certain stages to impose a different rhythm and force the favorites to adjust. Andreeva was particularly impressive, finishing her match in 68 minutes and at one point winning 17 consecutive points. The results kept the three seeded players on course for the second week of the season's final Grand Slam tournament, but the draw already brings different challenges in the next round.
The US Open is played at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Flushing Meadows, in New York's Queens, and the main 2026 tournament runs from August 30 to September 13. The opening days of the tournament traditionally bring a large number of matches and a wide range of conditions, from daytime slots to evening sessions on the biggest stadiums. That is precisely why a safe passage without an extra set often has greater value than the score itself: favorites conserve energy, reduce the time spent on court and gain more room for recovery before continuing the competition. Keys, Fritz and Andreeva arrived in New York with different expectations and different levels of experience at this tournament, but in their opening appearances they did what is most required of seeded players - they avoided early drama. The official schedule and draw then assigned Anna Bondar, Mattia Bellucci and Eva Lys as their next obstacles.
Keys passed a demanding test against Korneeva
Madison Keys, the tournament's 22nd seed, needed 94 minutes to break the resistance of 19-year-old Alina Korneeva. According to the US Open report, the American opened the match very aggressively and quickly took a 3:0 lead, but Korneeva responded with better movement and more precise defensive shots to level at 3:3. Keys again moved ahead at 5:3, but even then she was unable to close out the set without additional tension, as her young opponent came back to 5:5. In the closing stages, however, the experience of the former US Open finalist came to the fore: Keys won two consecutive games and closed the first set 7:5. In the second set she took the initiative early, moved ahead 4:2 and maintained the advantage until the end, although Korneeva saved a match point at 5:3 before the contest was completed at 6:4.
For Keys, this victory carried additional weight after last year's disappointment in New York, when she was eliminated in the first round by Renata Zarazúa. The official US Open states that the victory over Korneeva was her 30th of the 2026 season, marking the sixth time in her career that she had reached at least 30 wins in a single season. That figure demonstrates the consistency of a player who has long been among the most dangerous on fast courts, especially when she can impose her rhythm with a powerful serve and flat groundstrokes. Korneeva, on the other hand, arrived in New York as one of the more promising young players and showed in the first set why she is spoken of as a player who could rise quickly toward the top. In its preview of the match, the US Open particularly highlighted her recent victories over Emma Navarro and Iva Jovic at the WTA 1000 tournament in Toronto.
After the match, Keys admitted that the first round of a Grand Slam is often psychologically demanding, especially when there is a young player on the other side of the net who has little to lose. Rather than routine dominance, her victory was an example of controlling important points at moments when the score began to become complicated. Such a pattern could also be important later in the tournament, because in the Grand Slam format the pressure increases from round to round and the differences between players become increasingly smaller. According to the current draw, Keys will play Anna Bondar in the second round, after Bondar defeated Lucie Havlickova 6:3, 6:3 in her opening match. For the American player, that means another match in which she will have the role of favorite, but also the obligation to raise the level of her serve and reduce the fluctuations that Korneeva managed to exploit in the first set.
Fritz relied on his serve and control of the rhythm
Taylor Fritz, the ninth seed in the men's tournament, played a match against 18-year-old compatriot Darwin Blanch in which the difference in experience was visible in the key games. Fritz won 6:3, 6:2, 6:4 in approximately 100 minutes and, according to the official US Open report, finished the contest with 14 aces and only one double fault. Blanch opened the match fearlessly and immediately showed the quality of his serve, but two double faults at an important stage of the first set helped Fritz earn a break and take control. A similar pattern was repeated in the second set, when the young American ran into trouble on his own serve at 2:2 and Fritz took advantage of the opportunity to establish another lead on the scoreboard. The third set was tighter in terms of the score, but the ninth seed did not allow a comeback and closed the match 6:4.
The serving numbers best explain why Fritz did not have to take excessive risks during the match. The US Open stated that by the end of the second set he had won as many as 94 percent of the points after landing his first serve, while at the same time keeping his own errors under control. Blanch finished the match with 33 unforced errors and 20 winners, which against a player of Fritz's quality left too little room for an upset. Fritz said after the match that it is not easy to play against a young compatriot on a big stage, because such opponents often enter the match free of pressure and ready to attack. Nevertheless, in this case the experience of a player who has already gone deep at the US Open was decisive in maintaining a stable rhythm from beginning to end.
Fritz's relationship with New York has taken on particular significance in recent years. At the 2024 US Open he reached the final, which remains his best result at a Grand Slam tournament, and a year later he played in the quarterfinals. The official US Open also points out that before this year's tournament he won the title in Washington, so he arrived at the season's final Grand Slam with tangible momentum in terms of results. In the first round he did not have to display the full range of his game, but he accomplished what seeded players want at the beginning of a two-week tournament: finish the job quickly, without a fifth set, health problems or unnecessary expenditure of energy. In the second round he will face Italian Mattia Bellucci, who defeated Zsombor Piros 6:4, 6:2, 6:0.
For Blanch, simply appearing at Arthur Ashe Stadium represented an important step in his development. The 18-year-old entered the main draw with a wild card after winning the US junior championship for players under 18 in Kalamazoo, and the official US Open listed him at around 245th in the world rankings before the match. The gap in ranking and experience was significant, but some of his points, his powerful serve and his willingness to attack showed why he is regarded as an interesting American prospect for the future. For Fritz, meanwhile, such a match brought a different kind of pressure: victory was expected, and every prolonged setback would only increase the risk. That is precisely why the way he controlled his service games was more important than the attractiveness of the performance itself.
Andreeva dominant: 17 consecutive points and victory in 68 minutes
The most convincing performance among the three highlighted winners came from Mirra Andreeva. The fifth seed and 2026 Roland Garros champion defeated Janice Tjen 6:2, 6:2 in 68 minutes and reached the second round of the US Open for the fourth consecutive year. According to the tournament's official report, Andreeva won 17 consecutive points during the match and finished the first set by winning the final 15 points. Her advantage was particularly evident in longer rallies: the US Open states that she won 11 of 14 points in rallies lasting nine or more shots. Such statistics show that the victory was not merely the result of a powerful opening shot, but also of her ability to construct points patiently, change direction and seize the initiative when space opened up.
Tjen entered the match as the world's 36th-ranked player and as an opponent Andreeva already knows well. The two had met several weeks earlier in the third round of the WTA 1000 tournament in Cincinnati, where Andreeva won 6:1, 7:6. Despite that previous victory, the Russian player stressed that she did not take the new encounter for granted and that she had analyzed with her coach what she could do better. On court, she then played more aggressively and decisively, without allowing Tjen's varied style, including frequent use of the slice, to alter the structure of the match. The 6:2, 6:2 score and the short duration of the match were the logical consequence of the large difference in control of the rallies.
Andreeva arrives in New York with a significantly different status than in previous years. By winning Roland Garros in 2026, she became a Grand Slam champion and is no longer merely a young player with great potential, but one of the players expected to contend for the closing stages of the biggest tournaments. At the same time, the US Open has so far been her least successful Grand Slam in terms of how deep she has advanced, as she has never gone beyond the third round in New York. That is precisely why such a convincing start has additional value: it reduces early stress and gives her an opportunity to enter the second round with plenty of energy preserved. Official tournament data also state that the 19-year-old Andreeva now has a 14-1 record in first-round matches at Grand Slam tournaments.
Eva Lys awaits her in the second round, and according to US Open data, Andreeva has never played against her before. Lys defeated Gabriela Knutson 6:3, 6:3 in the first round, so Andreeva will have to move from a match in which she quickly established complete control into a new contest against an opponent who also opened the tournament without dropping a set. Jelena Ostapenko, the 30th seed, also appears as a possible later obstacle in her section of the draw, although it is still too early for such projections because the second-round matches must first be played. For Andreeva, the most important thing will be to maintain the combination of patience and well-timed aggression that she showed against Tjen. At Grand Slam tournaments, one convincing match does not guarantee the continuation of a run, but it can be an important indicator of form and confidence.
Three victories, but different messages for the rest of the tournament
Although Keys, Fritz and Andreeva all won without dropping a set, their matches sent different messages. Keys had to deal with Korneeva's comebacks on the scoreboard and rely on her experience in the closing stages of sets, which may help her later but at the same time shows where there is room for improvement. Fritz largely neutralized the danger with his serve and stability, without needing to force spectacular solutions, which is an ideal scenario for the opening round of a men's Grand Slam played in a best-of-five-set format. Andreeva, meanwhile, already displayed in her first appearance a level of control that will increase attention on her section of the draw. What they have in common is that they avoided one of the biggest problems of the early Grand Slam rounds: a long, physically costly match that can leave consequences for several days afterward.
The broader context of the 2026 US Open further increases the importance of every round. Before the start of the tournament, the USTA announced that total player compensation this year reaches a record 108 million US dollars, which is 20 percent more than the then-record 90 million in 2025. The singles champions are expected to receive 5.5 million dollars each, while compensation for appearing in the first round of singles has been raised to 140,000 dollars. Organizers also announced a new player-support program with an initial fund of two million dollars, divided equally between the men's and women's sides. The tournament's financial growth does not change the sporting logic of the draw, but it shows how important the US Open has become both as a global sporting event and as one of the most financially valuable competitions in professional tennis.
New York will once again be the center of world tennis during the first two weeks of September, while Arthur Ashe Stadium and Louis Armstrong Stadium remain the main stages on which the biggest favorites face players who often have nothing to lose. For spectators planning to attend the tournament, particularly in the later rounds, a practical overview of accommodation options in New York can make it easier to organize a stay and access the complex in Queens. Nevertheless, after the first round the sporting focus now shifts quickly to the next opponents and potential changes in rhythm. Keys against Bondar, Fritz against Bellucci and Andreeva against Lys will no longer have identical tactical tasks to those in their opening matches. This is precisely where the real selection process of a Grand Slam tournament begins: the first passage confirms form, but every subsequent round demands a new adjustment.
For the three seeded players, the initial objective has been achieved. Keys survived periods in which her young opponent leveled the score and put pressure on her serve, Fritz used his serve and experience to keep Blanch at a safe distance, and Andreeva played one of the fastest and most convincing matches of the day against Tjen. According to official US Open data, Fritz enters the next stage with the experience of reaching the 2024 final, Keys with the experience of the 2017 final, and Andreeva as the reigning Grand Slam champion who is still seeking her first breakthrough beyond the third round in New York. These are three different stories, but the shared starting point remains the same: no dropped sets and no early elimination. From the second round onward, the result will depend less and less on reputation and more and more on who can adjust their game fastest to a new opponent and to pressure that increases with every round.
Sources:
- US Open - overview of results from September 1, 2026, including the victories of Keys, Fritz and Andreeva and the context of their performances (link)
- US Open - detailed report on Madison Keys' victory over Alina Korneeva and the course of the match at Arthur Ashe Stadium (link)
- US Open - detailed report on Taylor Fritz's victory over Darwin Blanch, serving statistics and the context of Fritz's performance (link)
- US Open - detailed report on Mirra Andreeva's victory over Janice Tjen, the run of consecutive points won and statistics from long rallies (link)
- US Open / USTA - official announcement of record total player compensation of 108 million dollars at the 2026 US Open (link)