Jan Choinski became the first British player to suffer defeat at the US Open as he fell to a five-set defeat to Spain's Roberto Carballes Baena, despite pulling off a miraculous fightback from two sets down.
Ranked 276th in the world, Choinski was the only British qualifier from 10 who entered to progress to the main draw, but his run was seemingly destined to come to a premature end against Carballes Baena.
Choinski's qualifying feats appeared to have taken their toll on him, but the 28-year-old astonishingly forced a fifth set in a marathon Court 16 battle, only to lose his way when it mattered most at the end.
The world number 276 ultimately fell to a 2-6 3-6 7-5 7-6[5] 3-6 defeat after a mammoth four-and-a-half hour battle, ultimately being made to lament too many unforced errors, a staggering 74 to be exact.
The towering Choinski - who stands at 6ft 5in tall - still managed significantly more winners than Carballes Baena, 66 to 41, but he missed 14 of the 17 break points he fashioned and saw 18 aces from the Spaniard fly past him.
Nevertheless, the 28-year-old - crushed as he may be - could take plenty of positives from his main-draw debut at the US Open, having never previously appeared in the first round of a hard-court Grand Slam tournament.
Dominic Thiem bids farewell with Ben Shelton defeat
Not a dry eye in the house 🥲
— US Open Tennis (@usopen) August 26, 2024
Our 2020 champion Dominic Thiem bids an emotional farewell to the US Open. pic.twitter.com/Ru7AKwpYL1
As emotionally-charged as Choinski's exit may have been, the most tear-jerking farewell in the opening round of the tournament certainly belonged to Dominic Thiem, whose US Open adventure ended in straight sets to Ben Shelton.
The injury-plagued Austrian - who beat Alexander Zverev to win his first and only major at the 2020 US Open - will retire at the end of the season and fell to a 4-6 2-6 2-6 loss to home favourite Shelton at the Arthur Ashe Stadium.
Thiem was no match for last year's beaten semi-finalist, only hitting 11 winners compared to Shelton's 34 and committing seven double faults before saying a fond goodbye to the Flushing Meadows crowd.
Shelton was not the only American to earn an opening success in the first few hours of action, as defending women's champion Coco Gauff strolled past Varvara Gracheva 6-2 6-0 in just 66 minutes.
Olympic gold medallist Qinwen Zheng also came from a set down to sink Amanda Anisimova 4-6 6-4 6-2, while Taylor Fritz, Andrey Rublev, Casper Ruud and Zverev also progressed to round two.
However, ninth seed Maria Sakkari was forced to retire from her match with Yafan Wang due to a shoulder injury after losing the first set 6-2, continuing her rotten luck at major tournaments, having not been past round three of any Grand Slam since the 2022 Australian Open.
Ben Knapton
