Djokovic knocked out of US Open: Star loses in opening round of a major for first time in 20 years

Taylah Preston has capped her rise to the world’s top 100 and ended Australia’s barren start to this year’s US Open with a second grand slam match win this year.

The 22-year-old wildcard backed up winning her first match in a major at the Australian Open in January with an impressive 6-3, 6-3 victory over American Alycia Parks on Monday (AEST).

Preston, who made her top-100 debut last week, overcame deficits in each set to eliminate Parks.

The West Australian wriggled out of a 0-40 hole in the third game of the first-round contest before riding a break in the fifth game to a one-set advantage over Parks, whose waywardness contrasted greatly with Preston’s composure.

However, an aggressive crosscourt backhand secured Parks an instant break in the second set as she tried to lift in front of her home fans.

Parks had a game point on serve for a 3-0 lead, but she repeatedly was her own worst enemy, whether double-faulting, spraying shots wide or long, or simply fluffing straightforward volleys.

It was the latter that saw Parks gift Preston the break back in the second set.

Preston also had to dig deep after double-faulting to slip to 15-30 at two-all, but her emotions never wavered in a mature performance.

Parks called for the trainer to have the strapping on her right shoulder readjusted, but it did not help her cause. Another double fault from the American on break point put Preston on the brink of victory – and the world No.100 completed the job.

Preston hit only eight winners compared to Parks’ 22, but crucially committed 20 fewer unforced errors.

Earlier, Australian Talia Gibson threatened to cause an upset before losing 6-2, 4-6, 6-3 to Croatia’s Olympic silver medallist Donna Vekic, meaning she joined Adam Walton and Storm Hunter in exiting the year’s fourth and final grand slam in the first round.

Gibson, 22, has experienced a breakout year, earning a Billie Jean King Cup call-up and storming into the top 100 for the first time after a blistering few weeks at the Indian Wells and Miami Masters events, where she eliminated five top-20 stars.

She even briefly became Australia’s top-ranked woman, but quickly found herself a set and 4-1 down to Vekic – by a double-break deficit – in an error-strewn start before staging a mid-match revival.

Vekic’s serving woes helped open the door as Gibson claimed 10 points in a row to grab one of the breaks back, hold serve then reduce her former top-20 opponent to 0-30 in the eighth game, which turned into an enthralling back and forth.

Eventually, an increasingly agitated Vekic wilted on Gibson’s second break point in the game, delivering her sixth double fault for the match and fourth in the second set to leave the set tied at four-all.

By then, Gibson had reeled in her waywardness and was playing more measured, while still doing damage with her forehand, in particular.

A comfortable service hold followed for the Australian before Vekic staved off two set points with an ace and a wild Gibson return – but another double fault sent the match to a decider.

Everything seemed to be going Gibson’s way when she escaped from 0-40 in the opening game of the final set with some excellent first serves and a wonderfully struck forehand winner from deep in the court to get on the board first.

Her big opportunity came in the ensuing minutes.

A tense Vekic began spraying even the easiest of shots, offering two more break points to Gibson that could have split open the match. Instead, Gibson let her off the hook with an overly aggressive return on the first of them that succeeded only in finding the net before putting a second backhand into the net on the second.

Vekic finally made it out of the game on a mishit backhand that snuck inside the sideline and evaded Gibson’s racquet.

The stroke of fortune seemed to embolden the Croatian, who dug deep in Gibson’s next service game – which lasted more than 10 minutes and involved five deuces – to secure the break on her third chance.

Gibson barely avoided handing over a second break, then had two consecutive break points to get back to three-all after Vekic committed an eighth double fault. But twice more, Gibson bailed Vekic out with loose errors as her last opportunities came and went.

Hunter qualified for a grand slam main draw for the sixth time in her career, but her reward was a first-round date with Roland-Garros and Wimbledon semi-finalist Marta Kostyuk, the No.11 seed.

Kostyuk needed only 67 minutes to breeze past Hunter 6-4, 6-1, while China’s Wu Yibing thumped 43 winners in downing Walton 7-6 (7-2), 6-2, 7-5 to prevent the Australian from matching his second-round effort from a year ago.

Aleks Vukic, Kim Birrell are also playing on the opening day – their matches to be completed later on Monday morning (AEST).

Among the other players to advance to the second round so far were 2024 runner-up Jessica Pegula, 2021 champion Daniil Medvedev and fellow seeds Tommy Paul, Jasmine Paolini, Jiri Lehecka, Leylah Fernandez and Arthur Rinderknech.

However, dual grand slam winner Barbora Krejcikova lost 7-6 (7-4), 6-2 to Uzbekistan’s Kamilla Rakhimova, and British 29th seed Cam Norrie bowed out 6-7 (6-8), 6-2, 6-2, 6-3 to French up-and-comer Luca Van Assche.

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