Kyle Edmund has made a strong start to his second US Open campaign, taking out 32nd seed and recent Montreal semi-finalist Robin Haase 6-3, 7-5, 6-3 to reach the second round. Edmund, who made a surprise run to the fourth round last year at Flushing Meadows, suffered first-round exits at ATP World Tour Masters 1000 tournaments in Montreal and Cincinnati this month, but rebounded last week in Winston-Salem with a run to the semi-finals.
The British 22-year-old took charge on Haase's second serve, winning 64 per cent of those points. He also claimed five breaks of serve.
He next will play American Steve Johnson, who was another early winner on Day 1, toughing out a 6-4, 7-6(2), 7-6(5) win over veteran Spanish shotmaker Nicolas Almagro. Johnson was dominant on serve, winning 89 per cent of first-serve points and firing 16 aces.
"Any time you can get to a Grand Slam and get through day one in straights is definitely a win, but definitely a great win both tennis-wise, emotionally, everything put together," he said.
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His father, Steve Sr., passed away unexpectedly this past May and Johnson admitted that he was still learning how to deal with his emotions. He had started his summer hard-court campaign with three straight three-set losses before reaching the quarter-finals last week at the Winston-Salem Open.
"Some days you can process it all and take it in stride. Some days the littlest things will set you off," he said. "I'm just taking it day by day. I have been doing a better job the last few weeks in the summer with managing my emotions on the court and not letting things slip away."
No. 12 seed Pablo Carreno Busta rebounded from last week's loss in his Winston-Salem opener by defeating American qualifier Evan King 6-3, 6-2, 7-6(5). The Spaniard will look to reach the third round for the third time in four visits when he next meets Cameron Norrie. The British qualifier won the first two sets 7-6(7), 6-1 when Dmitry Tursunov retired from the match.