By BRIAN MAHONEY and STEPHEN WHYNO AP Sports Writers
NEW YORK — Alex Eala and her fans are headed to the weekend at the U.S. Open, along with two-time champion Naomi Osaka and 2023 winner Coco Gauff.
So is Madison Keys – just barely – but not No. 3 Felix Auger-Aliassime, who became the highest-seeded player knocked out of the tournament thus far. No. 6 Alex de Minaur losing in straight sets to Botic van de Zandschulp made it four of the top-10 seeded men’s players to get eliminated before the third round.
Gael Monfils, who won on his 40th birthday on Tuesday, bid adieu to Grand Slam tennis with a straight-sets loss to Irvine’s Learner Tien during the night session.
Osaka recovered after a mid-match lapse to advance to the third round with a 6-2, 5-7, 6-1 victory over Katerina Siniakova on Thursday, before Eala beat Oleksandra Oliynykova, 6-1, 6-4.
Eala, the No. 17 seed from the Philippines, gave her passionate backers reason to cheer immediately by winning the first nine points against her Ukrainian opponent, who had won their only previous meeting.
“I think everybody represents something in their own way; I’m Filipino and I proudly represent that,” Eala said. “And a lot of the crowd here today is Filipino and I’m sure they share in that sentiment.”
Gauff, who won her first major title at Flushing Meadows three years ago, moved on by beating Paula Badosa, 6-4, 7-6 (5), under the lights at Arthur Ashe Stadium in just under two hours. Badosa was playing for a third consecutive day, forced to finish her first-round match Wednesday after play was suspended Tuesday because of rain that hampered the tournament for multiple days.
“Paula’s a tough player,” Gauff said. “I don’t think there was too much I did wrong. I feel like she really stepped it up.”
Osaka wore silver and white under her long white jacket with a white visor as she arrived for her match, three days after she was dressed in black with her hair done in cornrows under a headband in a tribute to former NBA superstar Allen Iverson for her opener at night.
The No. 13 seed won the first set in 30 minutes and then opened a 4-2 lead in the second. But her level of play took a substantial dip, with 20 unforced errors in the set after only four in the first.
Osaka quickly regained control, breaking for a 2-0 lead in the third before finishing a 19-shot rally with a volley for a winner en route to taking the next game, appearing more relieved than excited by her nice touch.
“The match was definitely really tough and I don’t know, I just felt like I had to fight,” Osaka said. “I definitely had a couple opportunities in the second set and I think I was a little bit too hard on myself. So I took the bathroom break, regrouped a little, came back and just tried to have no regrets.”
Keys, the 2017 runner-up, also was on the verge of an early exit before erasing five match points and edging Anna Bondar, 5-7, 6-4, 7-6 (10-5).
“That was something, huh? No stress, though, we all knew I had it right?” Keys joked to the fans afterward.
Other notable women’s winners included 2022 champion Iga Swiatek and 2025 runner-up Amanda Anisimova.
Doubles play also began, though Serena and Venus Williams won’t play their first-round match until Friday night against Hao-Ching Chan and Maya Joint, who beat Serena in singles play at Wimbledon this summer.
MONFILS’ SLAM FAREWELL
Monfils fought hard in his second-round loss, but the Frenchman, who is planning to retire at the end of the year, was eliminated, 6-3, 6-4, 6-3, by Tien, who at 20 is half Monfils’ age and asked for and received his autograph after beating him in Montreal last month.
“It was an unbelievable atmosphere,” Monfils said. “Amazing energy on the court. It was really nice. You always want to give a little bit more, you know, you want to stay a little bit more. I gave my absolute all.”
Fans at Louis Armstrong Stadium chanted, “Mon-fils! Mon-fils!” and gave him a standing ovation after his final shot went into the net. He saluted the crowd before packing his bag, then watched a montage of his U.S. Open highlights on the video screen, received a commemorative poster from tournament officials and heard his name reverberate around the court one final time in New York.
“It’s been a long ride,” Monfils said, calling it his second-best crowd after Roland Garros in Paris. “It’s been an absolute honor for me to play all these years in front of you. I tried my best, tried to perform high-professional tennis but also give you a great show, and you guys give me great love, so I will never forget that.”
Monfils’ final appearance at Flushing Meadows came 21 years after making his debut in 2005, two months before Tien was born across the country. They had never played at all before facing each other twice over the past 30-some days.
“It was incredible,” Tien said. “I told him when we played in Montreal, ‘I hope we get to play one more time.’ I know we didn’t have that many opportunities left, so I’m super happy it happened here.”
Monfils made some history before bowing out, becoming the oldest man to win a match at the tournament since Jimmy Connors in 1992, who also did so on his 40th birthday. Had he beaten Tien, Monfils would have been the oldest to reach the third round in nearly a half-century, dating to 42-year-old Ken Rosewall in 1977.
He also made a core memory, reaching the mixed doubles semifinals with wife Elina Svitolina. Monfils joked it was the first and last time the couple was playing tournament tennis together.
Monfils is the third player to come out and say this would be his final Grand Slam, after Japan’s Kei Nishikori, who lost in qualifying, and Switzerland’s Stan Wawrinka, who earned an 11th-hour wild card and was knocked out in the first round.
“I’m just me, Gael Monfils,” he said. “I think some people might like me, some not. Some people think I’m fun, some not. Some people think that I entertain them, some maybe not. So I’m all right with everything.”
Monfils said he was at peace with the decision to retire and has already signed on with a Swiss company to work in wealth management. With Svitolina still playing, he will not be far from tennis.
“I’ll be around definitely no matter what for Elina a little bit,” Monfils said, “but I will be more a finance guy.”
AUGER-ALIASSIME OUSTED
Auger-Aliassime said he was feeling dizzy and seeing spots and couldn’t recover, falling to Karen Khachanov, 6-7 (5), 6-3, 6-2, 6-2, and becoming the highest-seeded player knocked out of the tournament thus far.
“Karen is a great player. Look, I cannot beat him or anybody in this draw feeling the way I felt today,” the Canadian said. “If I cannot move, we’re not talking about tennis here.”
The highest seed to fall so far had been No. 4 Novak Djokovic, the 24-time Grand Slam champion who lost in the first round at the U.S. Open for the first time in his career.
American Taylor Fritz, the 2024 men’s runner-up, eased to 6-0, 6-1, 6-1 victory over Mattia Bellucci, while fifth-seeded Flavio Cobolli defeated Tristan Schoolkate, 3-6, 6-3, 6-4, 7-5.
KYRGIOS CLEARED TO RETURN
Australia’s Nick Kyrgios is free to return to tennis after anti-doping authorities ruled that his positive test for cocaine had been conducted out of competition.
The 31-year-old former Wimbledon runner-up tested positive for the drug while playing in an ATP 250 event in Mallorca in June and began a provisional suspension on Aug. 4. He is officially allowed to play again starting Friday.
Had the test been conducted in competition, Kyrgios could have faced a four-year ban. Instead, the International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA) banned him for three months, reduced to one month on the provision that he undergo an approved rehabilitation program.
At the time of the suspension, Kyrgios had described his failed test as a “huge mistake” and described the situation as a “wake-up call,” vowing to “focus on getting myself right.”
Kyrgios has played just three tournaments in each of the past two years, struggling with knee and wrist injuries, both of which required surgery.
This week, Greek player Stefanos Tsitsipas said he was not surprised at the failed test.
“Pretty much expected, to be honest,” Tsitsipas said. “I am surprised it came so late, though.”
“I mean, to be entirely honest with you, I knew about this before the announcement. Myself, I knew about it,” Tsitsipas said. “So what can I tell you? I will just tell you the truth. I knew about all of this before any announcement was made, and when I saw it on social media, I was, like, ‘Here we go.’ I kind of expected it, to be honest.”
Tsitsipas and Kyrgios had a run-in at Wimbledon in 2022, calling the Australian a bully after a temper-fueled match.
Kyrgios went on to reach his only Grand Slam singles final the same year, losing to Djokovic in four sets.