US Open: Bonzi knocks out home favourite Eubanks to book spot in third round

French wildcard Benjamin Bonzi reached the third round of the US Open by edging out American Christopher Eubanks, the No 28 seed, 7-6 (6), 2-6, 6-2, 7-6 (7) at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center.

The 28th seed and Atlantan native will be bitterly disappointed not to have built his stunning run at Wimbledon by replicating something similar in front of his home crowd.

But Bonzi was good value for his win against a subdued Christopher Eubanks.

“I feel like I can take this & move on to hopefully have a very strong year-end, so I’m not really hanging my head too much” – Eubanks

Eubanks was disappointed but not despondent after the match, saying his opponent played well on the day and that he did well considering the new situation (of being seeded in a Grand Slam for the first time) he was in.

“All things considered, I thought it was just a new, I’d say, very new experience for me coming into a slam obviously being seeded, I think having some higher level of expectations on myself. Felt like I went out, like I’ve always said, if I can feel like my preparation is consistent with what it has been for the previous really 12 months going into tournaments, I’m taking care of my body, all those things are right, I can go on court, win or lose I can walk off with my head high. I felt like I did that. I was able to get one win in the first round,” Eubanks said in his post-match press conference.

“Today I think Benjamin just played exceptionally well. He played the bigger points better than I did. All things considered, I feel like I can take this and kind of move on to hopefully have a very strong end of the year, so I’m not really hanging my head too much.”

Bonzi, ranked No 108, will play Swiss qualifier Dominic Stricker next.

In the previous round of the Flushing Meadows tournament, the Frenchman edged out Quentin Halys (5-7, 6-4, 6-4, 6-4).

Eubanks, ranked No 30, edged out SoonWoo Kwon (6-3, 6-4, 0-6, 6-4) in the previous round of the Flushing Meadows tournament.

New York (Grand Slam), other second-round results (USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, hard, USD 44.700.000, most recent results first):

• Daniil Medvedev vs. Christopher O’Connell
• Carlos Alcaraz vs. Lloyd Harris
• Gael Monfils vs. Andrey Rublev
• Tomas Martin Etcheverry vs. Stan Wawrinka
• Andy Murray vs. Grigor Dimitrov
• Michael Mmoh vs. John Isner
• Lorenzo Sonego vs. Jannik Sinner
• Alexander Zverev vs. Daniel Altmaier
• Juan Pablo Varillas vs. Taylor Fritz
• Matteo Berrettini vs. Arthur Rinderknech
• Jack Draper vs. Hubert Hurkacz
• Yibing Wu vs. Alex De Minaur
• Nicolas Jarry vs. Alex Michelsen
• Felipe Meligeni Alves vs. Sebastian Baez
• Yu Hsiou Hsu vs. Cameron Norrie
• Arthur Fils vs. Matteo Arnaldi
• Botic van de Zandschulp vs. Daniel Evans
• Sebastian Ofner vs. Frances Tiafoe
• Titouan Droguet vs. Jakub Mensik
• Juan Manuel Cerundolo vs. Alejandro Davidovich Fokina
• Tommy Paul vs. Roman Safiullin
• Casper Ruud vs. Zhizhen Zhang
• Rinky Hijikata vs. Marton Fucsovics
• Dominic Thiem vs. Ben Shelton: wednesday
• Adrian Mannarino vs. Fabian Marozsan: wednesday
• Jiri Vesely vs. Francisco Cerundolo: wednesday
• Novak Djokovic (2) beat Bernabe Zapata Miralles: 6-4, 6-1, 6-1
• Aslan Karatsev beat Roberto Carballes Baena: 6-2, 4-6, 6-3, 7-6 (4)
• Laslo Djere (32) beat Hugo Gaston (Q): 6-1, 6-2, 6-3
• Borna Gojo (Q) beat Mackenzie McDonald: 6-3, 6-4, 6-4
• Dominic Stricker beat Stefanos Tsitsipas (7): 7-5, 6-7 (2), 6-7 (5), 7-6 (6), 6-3