US Open: Taylah Preston and Daria Kasatkina Exit in First Round
Taylah Preston’s US Open run ended with a jolt, not a slow fade.
The 20-year-old wildcard, the first Australian woman to punch her ticket into the second round, was also the first to depart, swept aside 6-1, 6-1 by big-hitting American Taylor Townsend in just 48 brutal minutes at Flushing Meadows.
Townsend took control early and never loosened her grip. Preston barely had time to settle before the match was racing away from her, the American dictating with weight of shot and court craft, the scoreboard turning lopsided almost as quickly as the rallies.
For Preston, it was a harsh reminder of the step up in class. For Australia, it was only the start of a turbulent day.
Kasatkina dragged to the brink
On the same day, Australian women’s number one Daria Kasatkina exited as well, but she went down swinging in a chaotic, weather-scarred duel with Spaniard Paula Badosa.
Their match had already been a stop-start affair. They resumed on day four after Tuesday’s rain interruption, with Badosa firmly in command at 6-1, 2-1. Kasatkina, though, refused to simply fold.
Serving at 3-5 in the second set, she saved two match points in a gripping 22-point game that stretched nerves and legs alike. Badosa pressed, Kasatkina counter-punched, and the contest finally caught fire.
Rain intervened again early in the second set, and when officials eventually called it a night just after Kasatkina fended off a third match point, the Russian was visibly relieved. Badosa was anything but. She stalked off court furious, forced to sleep on a lead and return 15 hours later to try and serve it out at 5-4, deuce.
The tension cranked up again on the restart. Kasatkina saved another six match points as she clung on, then manufactured two break points that would have dragged the set back to 5-5. The comeback felt close enough to touch.
Badosa, once ranked world No.2, finally slammed the door, closing out the contest at the ninth time of asking to secure a second-round showdown with defending champion Coco Gauff. Relief for the Spaniard. Only frustration for Kasatkina, who had turned a near-rout into a genuine escape act that fell just short.
Australians still in the fight
The Australian challenge is far from over in New York.
Maya Joint is due on court against ninth seed Elina Svitolina this morning, chasing a place in the third round at the US Open for a third straight year. The assignment is steep, but Joint has made this stage her habit.
Kim Birrell, meanwhile, faces Russian 18th seed Ekaterina Alexandrova with belief sharpened by past scalps. She toppled world No.5 and 2024 US Open finalist Jessica Pegula at Roland Garros and arrives in New York convinced she can bloody another seed’s campaign.
De Minaur battles weather and waits
On the men’s side, Alex de Minaur’s title ambitions have been forced into a holding pattern by New York’s stubborn weather.
Rain pushed his first-round match back so far that former champion Daniil Medvedev and American hope Alex Michelsen were already safely into the third round before de Minaur even struck a ball in his opener.
When he finally walked onto court on day four, the top-ranked Australian looked like a man in a hurry. He tore through Italian qualifier Andrea Guerrieri, surging to a 6-2, 4-2 lead in just 49 minutes, his trademark intensity turned up to full volume.
Then the skies opened again.
De Minaur sprinted for cover as another downpour halted his momentum and sent him back to the locker room. The interruption threatened to drag the contest into the same stop-start rhythm that had plagued so many matches across the first week.
This time, though, the delay didn’t derail him. Once play resumed, he tightened his grip, closing out a composed 6-2, 6-2, 6-4 victory to finally plant a marker in the draw.
For Australia, day four delivered a stark split-screen: Preston and Kasatkina gone, de Minaur moving on, and Joint and Birrell waiting in the wings. The question now is whether any of them can turn survival into something more substantial in the New York chaos.
