Americans Ben Shelton and Taylor Fritz enjoyed comfortable first-round wins Sunday at the US Open.
For the second straight year, Shelton played the New York tournament’s opening match at Arthur Ashe Stadium, cruising past qualifier Ignacio Buse 6-3, 6-2, 6-4.
“It’s starting to feel like home for me,” the sixth-seeded Shelton said in his on-court interview. “This is the best court in tennis, my favorite place to play, favorite tournament.”
Joining him in reaching the second round was Fritz, who faced more of a test but still got past another American, Emilio Nava, 7-5, 6-2, 6-3 at Louis Armstrong.
With Fritz seeded No. 4, this marks the first major with two American men seeded in the top eight since the 2007 US Open (No. 5 Andy Roddick, No. 6 James Blake).
Fritz, who lost to Jannik Sinner in last year’s championship match, has won 10 matches at the US Open since 2023 — tied with Sinner and Daniil Medvedev for most among men in that span.
Shelton, 22, is coming off his first Masters 1000 title at Toronto, where he became the first American to win the event since Roddick in 2003. Shelton squeaked out three deciding-set tiebreaks during that Toronto run, the most by any player en route to a Masters 1000 title.
He had an easier time of it Sunday against Buse, a 21-year-old Peruvian who was making his major main draw debut. Shelton saved all five break points he faced despite finishing with only five aces — his fewest in any major match win in his career.
Since the start of 2024, Shelton is 21-0 against unseeded opponents in Slams — the second-most such wins in that span behind only Sinner (22-0).
Shelton and Fritz will have two days off before playing their second-round matches Wednesday. Shelton face either Pablo Carreno Busta or Pablo Llamas Ruiz, while Fritz awaits the winner of Sebastian Baez vs. Lloyd Harris.
Fritz has now won 22 of his past 27 matches since the conclusion of the French Open, the most wins by any player on the men’s tour in that time.
In other men’s singles results Sunday, 18th-seeded Alejandro Davidovich Fokina beat Alexander Shevchenko 6-1, 6-1, 6-2. And Jakub Mensik, the No. 16 seed, got past Nicolas Jarry 7-6 (5), 6-3, 6-4.
ESPN Research contributed to this report.
