Scenes from Queens, Day 2: Venus Williams now 0-4 in 2022; Rublev's confounding five-set win; Paire's Very Bad Day; Muguruza averts disaster

Coaching confusion confounds Rublev during drama-filled opener

NEW YORK—At one point during Andrey Rublev’s drama-filled opening match at the US Open, the No. 9 seed let out a groan of frustration, flopped down at the end of a packed Court 5 and took a seat.

Absolutely nothing was going his way on a scorching Tuesday afternoon—and when he turned to his coach, Fernando Vicente, for some words of advice, it backfired on him.

Up two sets against an on-song Laslo Djere, Rublev watched the Serbian roar back and win the third. When Djere took a medical time out before the fourth set, Rublev walked over to Vicente for a quick chat and promptly received a code violation for his efforts.

The Russian was among the growing number of players who had been caught off-guard by the ATP Tour’s new off-court coaching rules. Players are allowed to speak to their coaches during a match, but they can’t hold a full conversation, and it’s only when both player and coach are on the same side of the court.

That means no conversations during an opponent’s medical time out. Or, apparently, during a spectator’s medical emergency either.

Earlier in the day, Cameron Norrie and Benoit Paire were confused when the Frenchman was penalized for speaking to his coach during a pause in the match when a fan fainted.

“The only time Benoit went to go talk to him and [the umpire] straightaway said not to,” Norrie recalled. “I get the idea of it, trying to keep the conversations short, but he didn't really give Benoit a chance to even start the conversation with the coach.

“It's a tricky one. They are letting you coach. Then they're like, No, no, no, you can't spend too long. It's kind of tough with the gray area.”

Despite those gray areas, Norrie and Rublev emerged victorious from their respective contests: the Brit with a bizarre 6-0, 7-6 (1), 6-0 win [scroll down for more details] and the Russian with a hard-fought 7-6 (5), 6-3, 3-6, 4-6, 6-4 victory.—Stephanie Livaudais

A Moment of Practice with ’21 Finalist Fernandez

NEW YORK—It’s 5:57 p.m. on Tuesday night at the US Open. To the west of Arthur Ashe Stadium are five practice courts. Starting at sunrise, these courts are packed, crackling with the sounds of one ball after another, players, coaches, parents and others shuttling in and out like some kind of racquet-filled airline terminal.

But at this moment, the only player on any of those courts is Leylah Fernandez. Runner-up here a year ago, currently ranked 14th, Fernandez at this moment is gently kicking a soccer ball across the width of Court P1. She’s on the north side of the court.

Tap and move. Tap and move. Tap and move. On and on.

Now, Fernandez moves further east to Court P2, then back all the way to the western sideline of P1.

Tan and move. Tap and move. Tap and move.

It is all so gentle, akin to a child in a field on a Sunday morning.

At the south end, in the bleachers, approximately 200 fans have just about filled the section behind P2. In contrast to the subdued qualities of Fernandez tapping a soccer ball by herself, what they’d previously witnessed was Fernandez in full practice mode. Forehand. Backhand. Forehand. Backhand. In this case, the drill called for lacing each shot down the line—early, hard, deep. Again and again and again. Think back to the likes of other lefties who made a mark here, Jimmy Connors and Monica Seles.

Earlier this year, Fernandez reached the quarterfinals of Roland Garros. But after that, a foot injury kept her off the tour for two months and just two matches since her return in August.

Yesterday she kicked off her US Open with a 6-3, 6-4 win over 98th-ranked Oceane Dodin. Tomorrow, no earlier than 5:00 p.m. on the Grandstand, Fernandez will play world No. 35, Luidmila Samsonova.

But if you watched Fernandez’s practice session this evening, you would have seen how neither last year’s run to the finals, nor yesterday’s win, nor tomorrow’s opponent, had anything to do with what she was doing in those minutes when day makes its towards night. Different as the drills appeared, soccer ball and tennis ball shared one of Fernandez’s signature assets: high-grade focus, intensity, drive – a constant state of presence.—Joel Drucker

Van Uytvanck vanquishes Venus, who is now 0-4 in 2022

Much like her sister Serena on Monday night, Venus Williams overcame a slow start in Arthur Ashe Stadium in her first-round match. Unlike Serena, though, Venus came up short in her fightback.

The 42-year old two-time US Open singles champion, playing in a record 91st Grand Slam main draw, was beaten by crafty Alison Van Uytvanck, 6-1, 7-6 (5).

“I was happy to play her for the first time on Ashe,” Van Uytvanck said in her on-court interview. “She’s a legend, she’s won so many Grand Slams. I knew she would raise her level [in the second set] and take the energy of the crowd, I knew to stay focused on my game and I’m just happy to be through.”

Van Uytvanck, a 28-year-old Belgian ranked No. 43, had won only eight matches this year coming into the Open, but then, Williams had played just three—all losses. That helps explain how the two women combined to make 51 unforced errors, compared to a grand total of just 37 winners (29 of them by Van Uytvanck).

Still, this was an interesting clash between two very different types of players: Williams the fierce ball striker; her opponent a tricky veteran with a deep box of tools, including an assortment of heavy slices. Van Uytvanck can hit with plenty of gusto, though, as she showed in the first set, forcing Williams onto her back foot right from the start with slapshot forehands and precise, laser-like backhands.

Van Uytvanck jumped to a 4-0 lead as Williams had trouble dialing in the serve. But after the first set slipped away, Williams settled in and broke serve immediately. She survived a 13-minute fourth game to remain in front, 3-1, but surrendered the sixth game. From 3-all on, it was anyone’s set. Both women settled in and held serve to force a tiebreaker.

The key in the decider was the mini-break Van Uytvanck recovered to level at 3-all thanks to a terrific inside-out forehand service return off a penetrating Williams serve. Williams bounced back with a mini-break of her own two points later, but she was unable to hold her next two serve points. An odd, mis-hit cross-court serve return winner brought Van Uytvanck to match point, which she converted with a volley winner after a brief rally.—Peter Bodo

A Tale of Two Lindas

NEW YORK—The future of women’s tennis is so bright, it nearly bore a hole in the US Open grounds where a pair of Czech teenagers named Linda aimed to win their first Grand Slam main draw match.

Linda Fruhvirtova took a leading role in her Court 9 clash against Wang Xinyu; an elder sister to an equally impressive talent in 15-year-old Brenda, there’s a certain symmetry in one set of siblings rising just as Serena and Venus Williams prepare to play what will likely be their final US Open together.

While Fruhvirtova, who broke through on tour earlier this season with a fourth-round finish at the Miami Open had things largely her own way en route to booking an encounter with former world No. 1 Garbiñe Muguruza, Linda Noskova was in a battle of her own against countrywoman Marie Bouzkova on Court 8.

A former world No. 24, Bouzkova is in the midst of a career-best stretch since reaching her first Grand Slam quarterfinal at Wimbledon and winning her first WTA title at home in Prague, but admitted to already feeling pressure from the Czech Next Gen.

“I felt very old playing around both Lindas today,” the 24-year-old joked after the match.

Bouzkova shook off a second-set comeback from Noskova, who nearly knocked out Emma Raducanu in her Slam debut at Roland Garros, to advance in three sets, and lauded the latest in Czech talent that traces its prestigious lineage back to Martina Navratilova and through the likes of Petra Kvitova and Karolina Pliskova—with more on the way.

“I think every year we have two or three new fresh faces. For us it’s obviously really tough because we’re always being challenged, but for Czech tennis and the sport in general, I think it’s great. They’re all really good, high-quality players already at such a young age, so it’s very nice to see.”

How long until at least one Linda is making her way from the anonymous outer courts to Arthur Ashe Stadium?—David Kane

Muguruza averts disaster, and celebrates accordingly

NEW YORK—When you watch Garbiñe Muguruza these days, you might find yourself waiting for disaster to strike. Sometimes it takes you by surprise, in a match that she seemed to have locked up—like her agonizing losses to Yulia Putintseva in Rome and Kaia Kanepi in Paris. Sometimes it happens right away, like her blowout defeats to Belinda Bencic and Elena Rybakina in her last two events. Muguruza is ranked No. 10, thanks to her win at last year’s WTA Finals, but she was just 9-14 on the season before today.

Still, hope springs eternal among US Open fans, and they bunched themselves around little Court 5 for the chance to see a two-time Slam champ from up close, against a quality opponent in Clara Tauson. Muguruza seemed energized by the cheers in Spanish, and the loud roars for her winners, and she won the first set 6-3. But that nagging, doomsday feeling returned when Tauson tightened things in the second set. When Muguruza began the second-set tiebreaker with a double fault and went down 1-4, the reality check seemed to have arrived.

But somehow, this time, for the one of the few times in 2022, it hadn’t. Muguruza stopped playing scared, and started taking charge. She hit cleanly and served big, and won six of the next seven points for a 6-3, 7-6 (5) victory. It was just a first-round match, but Muguruza lifted her arms above her head as if she had just won the tournament—or reached the final, anyway. Her coach and fellow sufferer, Conchita Martinez, flashed her a thumbs-up in support—“Good for you,” she seemed to say.

Once upon a time, a big win by Muguruza might trigger a Slam-winning run. That’s probably too much to hope for now, so her fans will have to enjoy a day when disaster was averted, and we saw her rewarded for playing her best tennis again.—Steve Tignor

Hot and Not

NEW YORK—It's a very warm, very humid day in Flushing Meadows. For Benoit Paire, it was also a Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day on the tennis court. Combine those two days and you get the 6-0, 7-6 (1), 6-0 score by which Cameron Norrie won and Paire lost. Even the second-set tiebreak was lopsided in the seventh-seeded Brit's favor.

The last game, in which Paire served, summed up both days adequately. It was the only game I saw outdoors, and it lasted just six points, but by the end of it I felt as if I'd fully captured Paire's day at the office, and also felt like I was about to start pouring sweat.

Paire began the game with a double fault, then played a short rally in which he didn't move towards the ball too eagerly. The next two points were quintessential Paire: a delicate lob winner that elicited a smile and a carved drop volley which any fan would love to have in their recreational arsenal. The still-plentiful crowd roared in approval.

"Hey, we've got some tennis here!" one said behind me.

Not for much longer. Having earned a modicum of momentum, Paire opted to let it evaporate in the sweltering day by trying an underhand first serve. (That said, Nebraska football coach Scott Frost may have been proud.) He got his overhanded second serve in, and a standard rally ensued, but the damage had been done, and Norrie collected an inevitable match point. At 30-40, Paire went back to the funky-volley well once more, only this time it left Norrie with a sitter forehand to put away.

We'll never truly know whether Paire tanked parts of this match. What we do know: he was the only ice-cold thing on these entire, sun-baked grounds.—Ed McGrogan