It took three days and a lot of dodging raindrops, but the U.S. Open finally finished the first round of qualifying and lesser known U.S. players have done well.
Nine of 20 American men reached the secondn round and young Ryan Harrison of New Braunfels, Texas, is one of the few into the third and final round. He had won his first round match on Day 1 and Thursday defeated No. 10 seed Rui Machado of Portugal to edge within one win of getting the Open main draw next week.
Meanwhile, seven of 15 American women reached the second round, though one of them, 17-year-old Sloane Stephens, lost her second-round match to No. 13 seed Zuzana Ondraskova of the Czech Republic.
Play continues Friday. The U.S. men survivors: No. 22 seed Robert Kendrick, No. 25 Kevin Kim, Jesse Witten, Alex Bogomolov, Chase Buchanan, Michael Yani, Bobby Reynolds, Blake Strode and Harrison. Strode, of St. Louis, was the winner of the recent U.S. Open Challenge, in which grassroots players were invited to compete in a series of tournaments to win a wild card into the Open quallies.
On the women’s side, No. 5 Varvara Lepchenko, Julia Cohen, Julia Boserup, Nicole Gibbs, Irina Falconi and Krista Hardebeck are into the second round.