Poland’s Iga Swiatek crushed Italy’s Jasmine Paolini 6-3, 6-0 to reach the second round of the US Open on Tuesday. Appearing in New York for the first time as the world’s top-ranked player, Swiatek looked the part, reeling off the last seven games to set up a meeting with either Belgium’s Greet Minnen or American Sloane Stephens.

Also advancing were American eighth seed Jessica Pegula who beat Viktorija Golubic 6-2, 6-2 and sixth-seeded Belarusian Aryna Sabalenka who defeated Catherine Harrison 6-1, 6-3.

Ukrainian qualifier Daria Snigur produced the performance of her career to upset twice grand slam winner Simona Halep 6-2, 0-6, 6-4 in the first round on Monday. The 20-year-old Snigur showed poise beyond her years to break Halep in the opening game and again in the third as she capitalised on a mounting number of unforced errors from the Romanian.

However, Snigur’s form completely fell apart in the second set as Halep stormed through six games in 24 minutes. But Halep failed to maintain that momentum as she dropped her serve in the first and fifth games. The 30-yearold broke Snigur in the eighth game to stay alive and fended off two match points in the next game. But Snigur kept her nerve to seal victory before bursting into tears. She then formed a heart shape with her hands around the Ukrainian ribbon pinned to her shirt.

American Coco Gauff eased into the second round with a comfortable 6-2, 6-3 victory over France’s Leolia Jeanjean.

Galan’s epic show

Colombian qualifier Daniel Galan stunned fourth-seeded Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas 6-0, 6-1, 3-6, 7-5 in the first round, winning the affair on the ninth match point. Playing in the main draw for the first time, Galan appeared right at home on tennis’ biggest stage, claiming the first 11 games as Tsitsipas struggled to find any of his usual finesse and won just five of his service points in the first set.

Tsitsipas had a physio tend to his right arm before the sixth game in the second set, when he finally got on the board, and again during the break before the third set, when he broke Galan in the second game. Carlos Alcaraz Garfia progressed when his opponent Sebastian Baez retired when trailing 5-7, 5-7, 0-2 while Cameron Norrie beat Benoit Paire 6-0, 7-6(1), 6-0. Spain’s Pablo Carreno Busta sent 2020 champion Dominic Thiem packing 7-5, 6-1, 5-7, 6-3, as the Austrian wildcard struggled with his forehand on the long road back from injury.

Kyrgios on track

Australian Nick Kyrgios overcame his despair at seeing dear friend Thanasi Kokkinakis on the other side of the net on Monday, outclassing his compatriot 6-3, 6-4, 7-6(4). The doubles partners won together at the Australian Open but landed on opposite sides here, where Kyrgios kept his sublime year on track, never facing a break in the battle of the “Special Ks”.