American No. 8 seed Ben Shelton defeated Hubert Hurkacz 6-3, 5-7, 7-6 (3), 7-5 on Wednesday to reach the third round of the US Open, after falling short of that round in his previous two majors.
As the hard-court Slams go, Shelton has reached the third round at eight straight majors, advancing past that stage once in his US Open career, when he made the semifinals in 2023.
"I think being battle-tested is great," Shelton, who also went four sets in the opening round, said of being pushed early in the tournament. "I don't think you want to be playing five-setters all the time. Maybe I could have won this match more efficiently today, but I thought that, you know, a lot of it was just credit to him and the level that he started to bring. I think that had I not got pushed the way he pushed me today, there are so many things that I've wanted to clean up over the last couple of days that naturally came out and continued to improve throughout the match.
"Playing a match like that definitely, you know, benefits me moving forward."
Shelton was later joined in the third round by fellow American Frances Tiafoe, who beat Rei Sakamoto 6-3, 7-6 (2), 7-5 in the night session at Louis Armstrong Stadium.
Tiafoe has now reached the third round or better at seven straight US Opens, the longest active streak among men.
With rain coming down for a second day in New York, play was suspended again for a time on outside courts, allowing only play under the roofs in Arthur Ashe and Louis Armstrong to continue uninterrupted.
No. 7 Daniil Medvedev raced past Sebastian Gorzny -- except for a brief delay to protest the chair umpire's decision to replay a point when two birds sat on the net -- 6-3, 6-3, 7-5.
"This would be definitely in the top five," Medvedev said in response to a question about unusual episodes he has had at Flushing Meadows. "But the thing is that when they came in, I thought, okay, the referee is going to stop the point, and he let it play, like, Okay, let's play. And the moment I hit the winner, he was, like, Stop, stop, stop.
"It's okay. It happens."
Those are second-round matches, while some players were still playing their first. When the US Open switched to a Sunday start last year, it spread out the first round over the first three days, so Wednesday would have arrived with everyone playing in the second round had the weather cooperated.
It hadn't.
Alex de Minaur, the No. 6 seed from Australia, said with all the juggling his match was moved twice from the court where he was originally scheduled. He finally started his US Open on Wednesday on Court 11 and beat Italy's Andrea Guerrieri 6-2, 6-2, 6-4.
"It's been a couple tough days. But I mean, these tournaments, it's all about adapting and that's the name of the game," de Minaur said. "There's too much to play for to let something like this affect you."
No. 12 Rafael Jodar, the 19-year-old from Spain who came in after a strong summer, was routed 6-2, 6-1, 6-1 by Yunchaokete Bu of China when his first-round match was finally completed.
"I knew it wasn't going to be easy because I was waiting a lot yesterday and today as well, but it is what it is," Jodar said. "We cannot control the rain, so it's difficult for both players."
The tournament was trying to catch up from Tuesday's rain delays, with 25 singles matches being played on the men's side alone. The first round was finally completed Wednesday night.
Alex Michelsen pulled off an upset in one of them by ousting fellow American Brandon Nakashima, the No. 16 seed, 6-3, 6-4, 6-4.
Also on Wednesday, Stefanos Tsitsipas defeated Lloyd Harris 6-7 (1), 6-3, 7-6 (4), 6-4 to reach the third round of a Slam for the first time since the 2024 French Open, and the first time at the US Open since 2021.
Tsitsipas will look to reach the second week at Flushing Meadows for the first time when he takes on Jiri Lehecka on Friday.
ESPN Research and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
