Medvedev Survives the US Open Round That Ended Him

No. 7 seed Daniil Medvedev beat French qualifier Hugo Gaston 6-4, 6-2, 6-4 on Sunday at the US Open, a first-round win that lasted 2 hours and 14 minutes. A year ago on these grounds he lost a five-set mess to Benjamin Bonzi, drew a $42,500 fine, and left New York in the round of 128.

The tennis on Sunday was clean. The pattern behind it is not. Medvedev has not spent a second week at Flushing Meadows since 2024, and Wednesday he plays American wildcard Sebastian Gorzny on Louis Armstrong Stadium, three days after Novak Djokovic’s first-round exit in the same building.

A Straight-Sets Win After Last Year’s Chaos

Gaston, ranked No. 91, never found a first-strike serve. Medvedev out-aced him 10-0, took 38 of 46 first-serve points (82.6%), and saved the only break point he faced. He converted four of eight break chances, hit three double faults, and closed both the start and the finish of the match the way he said he wanted to.

The last couple of weeks were not easy but, you know how it is, sometimes you lose matches, sometimes you win. I’m happy that today I managed to produce a high level of tennis. I felt like I did everything I wanted to do well. I finished the match strong. I started the match strong. I’m really glad the way I played.

Daniil Medvedev, on-court interview, Arthur Ashe Stadium

Those last couple of weeks included a first-match loss to American Martin Damm in Winston-Salem. The tournament account treated the Ashe return as a reunion with a former champion who had been joked out of the sport.

He did not leave for pickleball after all.

Welcoming back our 2021 champion Daniil Medvedev to Ashe! pic.twitter.com/S5HeontXLl

— US Open Tennis (@usopen) August 30, 2026

The Open also posted that he is happy to play professionally until he is 37 and a half, a number he arrived at with care. He is 30. The gag only works if the man in the clip still looks like a threat. On Sunday, against a qualifier, he did.

How Far the 2021 Champion Has Fallen in New York

Medvedev won this title in 2021, beating Djokovic 6-4, 6-4, 6-4 in the final and stopping a calendar Grand Slam. He then made another final in 2023, a quarterfinal in 2024, and last year he was gone before the second round. Through 2025 he held a 33-8 career US Open record, including a 7-2 mark in first rounds and a 7-0 mark in second rounds. Sunday’s win made those figures 34-8 and 8-2. The second-round ledger is still 7-0, because he has not played Wednesday yet.

MEDVEDEV AT THE US OPEN

The drop is steepest after 2023. As the No. 1 seed in 2022 he lost in the fourth round to Kyrgios. As No. 3 in 2023 he took out Carlos Alcaraz in the semifinals and then lost the final to Djokovic 6-3, 7-6, 6-3. Sinner beat him in the 2024 quarterfinals 6-2, 1-6, 6-1, 6-4. Then came Bonzi. This year’s other majors already followed the same thinner line: fourth round in Melbourne, first round in Paris, third round at Wimbledon. He is 32-15 in 2026 with one title, ranked No. 8, seeded seventh here.

Last Year Ended With a $42,500 Fine

The 2025 first round was the floor. Bonzi, who had already beaten him at Wimbledon, led by two sets and held match point at 5-4, 40-30 in the third on Louis Armstrong Stadium when a photographer ran onto the court after a fault, trying to reach the photo pit. Chair umpire Greg Allensworth gave Bonzi another first serve. Medvedev went to the chair, pulled the crowd in, and play sat still for about five minutes.

THE NIGHT THE PHOTOGRAPHER STEPPED ON COURT

1. August 24, 2025: Bonzi serves at 5-4, 40-30 in the third set, one point from a straight-sets win, and a photographer enters the court after a missed first serve.
2. August 24, 2025: Allensworth awards a new first serve; Medvedev argues, the crowd boos, and the delay runs about five minutes before Bonzi is broken and later loses the set in a tiebreak.
3. August 25, 2025: Bonzi still closes 6-3, 7-5, 6-7(5), 0-6, 6-4 after Medvedev wins the fourth set 6-0 and twice gives back breaks in the fifth.
4. August 27, 2025: Tournament referee Jake Garner issues a $30,000 unsportsmanlike-conduct fine and a $12,500 racket-abuse fine, $42,500 in all, more than a third of the $110,000 first-round purse.

ATP staff counted 64 unforced errors overall from Medvedev that night. After the handshake he threw six racquets from his bag into the stands. He had won one Grand Slam match in the entire 2025 major season. “I’m playing bad and in important moments, even worse,” he said then. “Everything: serve, return, volley, whatever… I just need to play better, and I’m going to try to do it next year.” Next year is this week, and the serve numbers against Gaston were the first public answer.

Tommy Paul’s Fifth Straight Trip Into Week Two

No. 20 seed Tommy Paul, the top American man on the Sunday schedule, had to climb out of a hole of his own. Coleman Wong of Hong Kong, ranked No. 94, served 15 aces to Paul’s nine, came back from 5-3 down in the first set, and took the tiebreak 7-3. Paul then won 6-1, 6-3, 6-3 and reached the US Open second round for a fifth year in a row.

I feel like I started the match really, really well. Obviously had a little hiccup there at the end of the first set and didn’t think I played too well there in the breaker. I knew I had to up my intensity in the second and the rest of the match, really. I wanted to get the crowd a little bit involved. I think we had some good points, and it was fun to play with you guys.

Tommy Paul, on-court interview

Paul’s New York ceiling has been the fourth round, where Ben Shelton beat him in 2023 and Sinner beat him in 2024. Last year Alexander Bublik ended him in the third round. He is 29, a former No. 8, and he lives in the bottom quarter with Alcaraz. Wednesday he plays Dino Prizmic, the Croatian ranked No. 102 who saved two match points to beat Aleksandr Shevchenko 2-6, 6-3, 6-3, 5-7, 7-5 in 3 hours and 54 minutes.

SUNDAY’S OTHER SEEDED RESULTS

• First seed out: No. 29 Cameron Norrie lost to Luca Van Assche 6-7(6), 6-2, 6-2, 6-3, with Van Assche winning 49 of 58 first-serve points (84.5%) and Norrie 43 of 75 (57.3%).
• Lehecka through: No. 18 Jiri Lehecka beat Pablo Carreno Busta 6-1, 7-6(5), 4-6, 6-2.
• Rinderknech through: No. 26 Arthur Rinderknech beat Sho Shimabukuro 6-7(4), 6-2, 7-6(4), 6-2.
• Etcheverry through: No. 27 Tomas Martin Etcheverry beat Vit Kopriva 6-3, 6-4, 6-0.

Norrie entered ranked No. 35, five spots above Van Assche at No. 40, and still became the first seed to fall. Outside courts stopped at about 8:05 p.m. ET because of rain. The roof on Arthur Ashe was already shut.

Under the Ashe Roof, Djokovic’s Opening Streak Died

The same Sunday that restored Medvedev’s first-round win ended Djokovic’s. Mariano Navone, an Argentine ranked No. 49, beat the No. 4 seed 7-6(5), 5-7, 4-6, 6-2, 6-1 in 4 hours and 36 minutes, Djokovic’s longest opening match at a major. It was his first opening-round defeat since 2006 at a Grand Slam, and the first first-round loss in 20 US Open appearances.

I think it was obvious that it was an awful feeling on the court for me. It’s something that I’ve been carrying, unfortunately, pretty much every match this year, vomiting, throwing up, serious issue there. And then my whole body starts to collapse, basically, cramping and pain. Yeah, the back just gave up in the end, and the shoulder, and I couldn’t close it out.

Novak Djokovic, after the loss, US Open

He finished with 70 unforced errors. Navone converted 6 of 17 break points. Sinner is out with a knee injury and Alcaraz is back from a four-month wrist layoff, so the hole in the top of the draw is real. Medvedev is one of the names who would have been asked to fill it. A first-round win over Gaston does not fill it. It only keeps him in the building.

Five Match Points and a Five Percent Chance

Gorzny is 22, from Southern California, 6-foot-4, and ranked No. 731 in singles. He won the USTA collegiate wildcard playoff after two years at TCU and two at Texas, where he finished No. 2 in the ITA singles rankings and made the NCAA final. In 2022 he won the Wimbledon boys’ doubles title with Alex Michelsen. On Monday, in his first Grand Slam match, he saved five match points against Raphael Collignon, the Belgian ranked No. 38, and won 3-6, 6-3, 3-6, 6-3, 7-6(9) in 3 hours and 58 minutes. Rain had stopped them Sunday at two sets all, Gorzny serving at 3-4 in the fifth.

The ranking gap is almost 700 places. The medical file is the part the draw sheet cannot show. In 2019, at 15, Gorzny had a seizure at the USTA Boys’ 16s Nationals in Kalamazoo, went into an induced coma for four days, and was given a five per cent chance of surviving. Doctors guessed a mosquito bite that led to a brain infection.

They said I had a five per cent chance of surviving. They were going to take the tubes out and either I was going to breathe or not. I made a full recovery, luckily. Thank you to the team at that hospital.

Sebastian Gorzny, to ATPTour.com

He has said the four days were a blank, “just like a long sleep,” and that the fear sat with his family. Models for Wednesday still give Medvedev around 80 percent of the match. That is the right tennis read and the wrong human one. Gorzny has now won a five-set Grand Slam match after saving five match points. Medvedev has never lost a US Open second round. Those two facts meet on Armstrong.

Wednesday on Armstrong, With a Wildcard Across the Net

Medvedev’s half of the draw still has Arthur Rinderknech or Jaume Munar in the third-round area if he gets through. Paul has Prizmic and then, if both hold, a harder American week. The Sunday card already moved the old furniture: Djokovic is out, Norrie is out, and the 2021 champion is in.

WHAT WEDNESDAY ASKS

• Medvedev: A first US Open second round since 2024, against a wildcard who had never won a tour-level main-draw match before Monday.
• Paul: A fifth straight second-round match in New York, against a qualifier who just played nearly four hours and saved match points.
• Navone: A second-round date with Matteo Berrettini, who beat Stan Wawrinka, after the biggest win of his career.

Medvedev has done the quiet part. He held serve, he hit 10 aces, and nobody walked onto the court between first and second serves. The record that still governs him is the one in the table: champion, fourth round, final, quarterfinal, first round. Wednesday is the first chance in two years to add a second-round win to it, against a player who was given a 5 percent chance to be alive at all.