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Tuesday’s showers delivered tennis far and wide Wednesday at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, 87 matches in all stacked five and six-deep on most courts. It made for dizzying but exhilarating viewing for fans, tracking the close calls and draw-altering upsets as they unfurled across the grounds.
When the ball fuzz settled, the US Open was back on schedule, with the players in the bottom halves of the men’s and women’s draws having advanced into the third round. Not among them: No. 4 seed Alexander Zverev and No. 8 Jo-Wilfried Tsonga on the men's side, No. 5 Caroline Wozniacki on the women's side.
The highest seed in the bottom half of the men’s draw - the result of No. 2 Andy Murray’s withdrawal - Zverev was dismissed Wednesday evening by fellow up-and-comer Borna Coric of Croatia. Tsonga followed soon after, felled by another rising star, Canadian sensation Denis Shapovalov.
The result? No. 5 Marin Cilic and No. 10 John Isner – both Wednesday winners – are the only Top 10 seeds remaining in the bottom half, with Cilic the only contestant from that group who is either: (a) ranked in the Top 10 or (b) a past Grand Slam finalist.
The loss for Wozniacki, meantime, robs the Open of a fan favorite but clears a path to the quarterfinals for No. 9 Venus Williams, the two-time Flushing titlist who cruised into the third round Wednesday evening. Two additional past women’s champions advanced on Wednesday as well, with Russians Maria Sharapova and Svetlana Kuznetsova fighting through difficult three-setters, both coming within a few points of defeat before righting the ship.
With the Open’s busiest day now in the rear-view mirror, here’s a look back at Day 3 of the 2017 US Open and a look ahead to a decidedly less crazy Day 4:
Match of the Day
Svetlana Kuznetsova won the title here in 2004 and returned to the final in 2007; in the decade since, the perennial contender has come up short. In fact, she has not advanced past the fourth round since her run to the final 10 years ago, and she has not made it out of the second round in her last three trips to the Big Apple.
Wednesday looked like it might be another early exit. Eighteen-year-old Marketa Vondrousova, the youngest player in the Top 100, had the veteran on the ropes in the third set of their back-and-forth affair, pulling out to match point with Kuznetsova serving at 4-5 in the decider. But the two-time Grand Slam champion fought that one off, winning a 17-shot rally, then beat back another and finally a third, holding to 5-5 and, eventually, sending the match to the ultimate pressure point in Grand Slam tennis: the deciding-set tiebreak.
There, Kuznetsova’s veteran poise carried the day. She won the breaker, 7-2, to complete a 4-6, 6-4, 7-6 comeback that advanced her into Round 2. And with a favorable draw in front of her, a long overdue deep run seems a very real possibility.
play video Performance of the Day: Svetlana Kuznetsova
Player of the Day
Some players shine brightest on the biggest stages, under the lights and with the tennis world watching. Denis Shapovalov, it appears, is one of these players.
Three weeks after his breakthrough at the Rogers Cup in Montreal, where he upended Juan Martin del Potro and Rafael Nadal en route to the semifinals, the 18-year-old brought his livewire arm and peripatetic array of strokes to the New York night, blitzing No. 8 seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, 6-4, 7-4, 7-6, to advance to the third round in just his second Grand Slam main draw.
Standing only 6-foot and weighing in at a slight 165 pounds, Shapovalov is a whir of motion and flair, with a free-wheeling, single-handed lefty backhand, a slingshot serve and a quick-strike forehand. He brought it all together against Tsonga, never allowing the veteran Frenchman to get a foothold in the match.
Shapovalov next faces Kyle Edmund, who reached the fourth round here a year ago, but his toughest opponent might be fatigue. The Israeli-born teen’s run in Montreal propelled his ranking 76 spots and into the Top 70, but it came after the entry deadline for the 2017 US Open. Relegated to qualifying, Shapovalov had to win three matches just to reach the Flushing Meadows main draw, where he knocked off Daniil Medvedev and now Tsonga.
But a win over Edmund and the draw opens up, with No. 12 Pablo Carreno Busta the highest seed standing between the Canadian and the quarterfinals – with more bright, shining lights awaiting in Week 2.
Upset of the Day
Borna Coric and Alexander Zverev grew into tennis fame in parallel, two heralded juniors predicted to achieve greatness, fortune and Grand Slam glory as professionals. In the past year, however, Zverev has soared while Coric has stalled, the former breaking into the Top 10 and emerging as a pre-tournament favorite, the latter mired in the 40-60 range of the rankings for a third consecutive year.
Their paths intersected again Wednesday on the Grandstand. Only this time, it was Coric who shined. Playing fearless tennis, the Croat stood toe to toe with the 6-foot-6 German, saving two set points in the fourth set and claiming the frame – and with it, the match – in a breaker.
The end result was a 3-6, 7-5, 7-6, 7-6 victory for Coric, the biggest victory of the 20-year-old’s promising career. (His advance to the round of 32 matches his best result in a major, achieved at Roland Garros in 2015 and 2016.) For Zverev, it was another early exit from the Slam that seems to suit his game so perfectly and drops his record in Flushing to 2-3; he has never advanced past the second round.
And so it goes, with a 20-year-old wunderkind set to play into the US Open third round – just not the one everyone thought.
August 30, 2017 - Borna Coric in action against Alexander Zverev at the 2017 US Open. (USTA/Brad Penner)
Photo by: (USTA/Brad Penner)
Quote of Day
“I am feeling fresh and moving on. There are still a lot of very good players in this tournament that are going to have to be dealt with. I think I'm one of them.” – John Isner, who advanced to his ninth consecutive US Open third round with a straight-sets win over Hyeon Chung

Day 4 Preview
The singles draws will winnow down to 32 each for the men and women as the second round wraps up on Thursday. Top seeds Rafael Nadal – at night, against Taro Daniel – and Karolina Pliskova – during the day, versus Nicole Gibbs – will both be in action, as will Roger Federer, who will try to shake off his Tuesday night five-setter when he takes on familiar foe and fellow graybeard Mikhail Youzhny, against whom he sports a tidy 16-0 career mark.
In other notable Day 4 matches, big-serving American CoCo Vandeweghe will get her star turn when she leads off the night session in Arthur Ashe Stadium against Ons Jabeur, and a quartet of title contenders – Jelena Ostapenko, Grigor Dimitrov, Dominic Thiem and Madison Keys – will be in action in Louis Armstrong Stadium.

On the heels of yesterday’s frenetic Flushing marathon, during which 87 singles matches were played, a semblance of order returns on Day 4 of the 2017 US Open, with the top halves of the men’s and women’s draws each engaged in second-round play. A grand lineup of the game’s greats headlines the day, with Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer, Juan Martin del Potro, Dominic Thiem, Gael Monfils, Donald Young, Karolina Pliskova, Madison Keys, CoCo Vandeweghe, Elina Svitolina, Jelena Ostapenko and Svetlana Kuznetsova headlining play. With the field now cut in half, the intensity doubles. You think it’s tough winning a US Open match? Try winning two in a row.
Men’s top seed Nadal knows a thing or two about stringing together big wins on the game’s largest stages. The two-time US Open champ has captured 15 Slam crowns in 22 finals, second-best in each category, trailing only that Swiss guy who pretty much owns every category. The 31-year-old Spaniard won a record 10th title at Roland Garros in June, and although he’s more closely associated with clay than Gumby, he’s proven through the years that he’s entirely capable of handling the hard stuff, compiling a lifetime 404-124 mark on cement. Having regained the men’s No. 1 ranking last week, the Spaniard finds himself on this tournament’s top line for the first time since 2010. He seemed pretty comfortable there in his first-round match over Serb Dusan Lajovic; after a first-set tiebreak, Nadal ran away with the 7-6, 6-2, 6-2 win.
The top seed will look for a similar showing tonight against Japan’s Taro Daniel, who’s into the second round here for the first time in his career. Daniel, 24, who was born here in New York, notched his first career US Open win yesterday, toughing out a wild five-set win over wild card Tommy Paul. Daniel showed a good deal of grit in that match, rallying back from two-sets-to-one down for the win. But few – if any – are capable of out-gritting the top seed, who now owns a career 46-10 mark in Flushing. In three, Nadal is on to the third round.
Related: USOpen.org Day 4 picks
Federer, playing here as the No. 3 seed, is No. 1 in virtually every category that involves swinging a racquet. The all-time men’s leader in Grand Slam titles, Federer this year has triumphed at both the Aussie Open and Wimbledon, bringing his major title total to 19. A win here would give the 36-year-old Swiss six US Open crowns, breaking the tie for most among men in the Open era he now holds with Pete Sampras and Jimmy Connors. His five consecutive wins here from 2004-08 are another Open-era record, and his career mark in Flushing through the first round this year is 79-11. You get the idea; he’s pretty good.
All that said, Federer was severely tested in the first round by American Frances Tiafoe, who managed to make the third seed seem almost mortal by barraging him with a ferocious ground assault. But as the greats all seem able to do, Federer found another gear and pulled out the five-set win. Yet even in winning, Federer appeared to be less-than-100 percent, seemingly still bothered by the testy back that forced him to withdraw from the Cincinnati event two weeks ago. He’ll get another chance to test that back today against a familiar foe, Russia’s Mikhail Youzhny, a tour veteran who’s competing in the US Open for the 12th time in his career. Youzhny, 35, was a semifinalist here in 2006 – his best-ever performance in a Slam. To say their career meetings have been one-sided would be something of an understatement; Federer is 16-0 lifetime against the Russian. Even with a testy back, it’s hard to imagine Federer not coming out in front. In three, Federer advances.
August 29, 2017 - Karolina Pliskova in action against Magda Linette at the 2017 US Open. (USTA/Garrett Ellwood)
Photo by: (USTA/Garrett Ellwood)
Women’s top seed Pliskova reached her first career Slam final here last year, taking out both Venus and Serena Williams back-to-back before dropping the final to Angelique Kerber in three tight sets. This year, the 25-year-old Czech has continued her ascent, winning three titles – including two on hard courts – and reaching the quarters of the Aussie Open and the semis of the French. After a disappointing second-round dismissal at Wimbledon, Pliskova put together a pretty solid summer, reaching the quarters in Toronto and the semis in Cincinnati. The first Czech woman to earn the No. 1 ranking since the computer ranking system was introduced in 1975, Pliskova needs to reach the final here in order to hold onto the top spot.
She’ll look to take a second step toward that singular goal today against American qualifier Nicole Gibbs, who advanced to the second round here for the fourth consecutive year with an uneven 6-0, 1-6, 6-1 win over Veronica Cepede Royg yesterday. Gibbs, who has ranked as high as No. 68, now stands at No. 127, but make no mistake, the American is a feisty competitor, a battler who fights for every point. Twice, she’s been as far as the third round of a major – here in 2014 and earlier this year at the Aussie Open. That said, this fight looms as a particularly tough one, as the top seed no doubt recognizes the pretty clear path leading her deep in this draw. The Czech owns a 2-0 edge in career meetings with the American and figures as the favorite to complete the hat trick today. In two, Pliskova moves on to Round 3.
Like Pliskova, No. 15 seed Keys has got to like the look of the lines ahead of her. The 22-year-old American, who reached the semis of the Australian Open and the quarters of Wimbledon in her breakthrough year of 2015, has long seemed on the verge of a major win – but that win has yet to come. Certainly, Keys has the game to do well on these hard courts, but her run to the fourth round each of the last two years represents her furthest advance at her home Slam.
Today, Keys takes on Germany’s Tatjana Maria, who took out another American – USTA Girls’ 18s champ Ashley Kratzer – in the first round. Maria, ranked No. 61, has this year reached the quarterfinals of two clay-court events, but in four prior US Open appearances, has reached the second round here only once before. The two women have gone head-to-head just once, with Keys winning in Wimbledon’s third round in 2015. Given Keys’ talent and experience on the game’s biggest stages, it shouldn’t be too tough for her to solve a problem like Maria. In two, the American advances.