Canada's Felix Auger-Aliassime was eliminated from the U.S. Open on Wednesday, dropping his second-round match in four sets to Russia's Karen Khachanov.
The Montreal native and No. 3 seed at the event in New York won the first set in a tiebreak 7-6 (5), but dropped the next three sets by the scores of 6-3, 6-2, 6-2.
The world No. 50 Khachanov, who lost the opening match in his three U.S. Open tune-up events, was far from spectacular but did enough on a day when 2025 semi-finalist Auger-Aliassime struggled mightily.
Khachanov, who made a run to the U.S. Open semi-finals in 2022, broke Auger-Aliassime's serve seven times on the Louis Armstrong Stadium court and saved seven of the nine break points he faced en route to securing only his second top-10 win at a Grand Slam.
Auger-Aliassime looked ready to whip through the first set after consolidating a break for a 3-0 lead but was suddenly undone by a string of errors, allowing Khachanov to pull ahead before the Canadian broke for a second time to get to 4-4.
But Khachanov showed he was ready for a fight and twice held at love while serving to stay in the set before falling short in the tiebreaker, which ended when he sent a backhand long after chasing down an Auger-Aliassime volley.
In the second set it was Khachanov's turn to jump ahead 3-0 but he never looked back, ultimately closing it out on his serve after coming back from 15-40 down.
Khachanov cruised through the third set, breaking at love to reach 4-1 en route to wrapping up the frame on his serve and leaving Auger-Aliassime with a long road back on a day when little was going right for him.
The Russian, displaying full confidence in his swings, wasted little time in the fourth set, opening up a 4-0 lead that appeared to drain the energy and strength from Auger-Aliassime, who looked a shell of his normal self.
Khachanov went on to close out the encounter with a four-point hold, the final blow coming with a massive serve that Auger-Aliassime failed to return.
Up next for Khachanov, who has only reached two quarter-finals this year, will be either Frenchman Benjamin Bonzi or Peruvian 32nd seed Ignacio Buse.
Auger-Aliassime advances past Hijiata in opening-round win at U.S. Open
Naomi Osaka recovered after a mid-match lapse to advance to the third round of the U.S. Open on Thursday with a 6-2, 5-7, 6-1 victory over Katerina Siniakova.
The two-time U.S. Open champion went out early on a day that had also had Alex Eala and Iga Swiatek on the schedule, with Coco Gauff headlining the action at night.
Doubles play also began Thursday, though Serena and Venus Williams were not on the schedule. They could play their first-round match Friday against Hao-Ching Chan and Maya Joint, who beat Serena in singles play at Wimbledon this summer.
