More seeds out as Ruud, Dimitrov and Garin are beaten at US Open

The exodus of seeds continued on the men’s side at the US Open on Wednesday as two more big names were sent packing.

Eighth seed Casper Ruud of Norway was upended 3-6, 6-4, 6-3, 6-4 by Dutch qualifier Botic van de Zandschulp while 15th seed Grigor Dimitrov retired with a foot injury when trailing Alexei Popyrin of Australia 7-6 (4), 7-6 (4), 4-0.

 Ruud said he had struggled to deal with the conditions at Flushing Meadows.

“I’ve never really felt comfortable on that surface,” he said. “It’s the fastest surface I’ve ever played on. I’ll need to learn from it. It was a solid match, he played very well. I don’t feel like I’ve played bad even if it wasn’t maybe my best match.”

Injury ends Dimitrov’s hopes

Popyrin and Dimitrov had only played each other once before – earlier this year in Melbourne, in one of the warm-up tournaments for the Australian Open, and Dimitrov won that 6-4, 6-7(5), 6-3.

Australia’s Popyrin will play Britain’s No 24 seed Dan Evans, a four-set winner over Marcos Giron of the USA.

Chile’s Christian Garin also crashed out, the No 18 seed beaten 3-6, 7-6 (5), 6-2, 6-4 by the Switzerland’s Henri Laaksonen.

The 15 seeded players out before the 3rd round:

• 8 – Casper Ruud
• 9 – Pablo Carreño Busta
• 14 – Alex de Minaur
• 15 – Grigor Dimitrov
• 16 – Cristian Garin
• 19 – John Isner
• 20 – Lorenzo Sonego
• 23 – Ugo Humbert
• 25 – Karen Khachanov
• 26 – Cameron Norrie
• 27 – David Goffin
• 28 – Fabio Fognini
• 29 – Alejandro Davidovich Fokina
• 30 – Marin Cilic
• 32 – Filip Krajinovic

FULL SUMMARY OF WEDNESDAY’S ACTION AT THE US OPEN

• Seeds winning on Wednesday at the US Open (2nd round): Daniil Medvedev (2), Stefanos Tsitsipas (3), Andrey Rublev (5), Diego Schwartzman (11), Felix Auger-Aliassime (12), Roberto Bautista Agut (18), Dan Evans (24)
• Seeds losing on Wednesday at the US Open (2nd round): Casper Ruud (8), Grigor Dimitrov (15), Cristian Garin (16)
• To follow our full coverage of the 2021 US Open, please visit this page.
• To follow live results, to see the men’s draw and women’s draw, we recommend you follow the official US Open website.
• Tomorrow’s programme at the US Open is available here (and by the way, today’s schedule is here ).
• All the practical information – how to watch the tournament, how to buy tickets and everything else you could possibly need to know – is hopefully in this page.