The US Open weather is becoming a problem again. Grigor Dimitrov and Alexei Popyrin were right in the middle of a tense first-round battle when rain forced them off court, tied at one set each and 2-2 in the decider, with Dimitrov up 15-0 on serve.
Juncheng Shang and Marco Trungelliti, Felix Auger-Aliassime and Rinky Hijikata, Jakub Mensik and Shintaro Mochizuki, and Quentin Halys and Facundo Diaz Acosta were all pulled off the outer courts as the weather moved in, with Court 5 among those shown sitting empty under a “play suspended” notice.
At that point, the US Open was staring at another scheduling mess. Early estimates pointed to a 40- to 60-minute delay, but there was no official restart time and no cancellation, leaving organizers hoping the rain would ease before Monday’s schedule turned into another overnight backlog.
Heavy rain hit the US Open opening night around 8:10 p.m., forcing every match still underway on the outer courts to stop.
These were the matches affected by the rain delay:
- Thiago Agustin Tirante vs. Adrian Mannarino
- Martin Landaluce vs. Jacob Fearnley
- Aleksandar Vukic vs. Rei Sakamoto
- Sebastian Gorzny vs. Raphael Collignon
- Alex Michelsen vs. Federico Cinà
- Emma Navarro vs. Loïs Boisson
- Kimberly Birrell vs. Petra Marčinko
Around 9 p.m. EDT, all affected matches were called off for the night. They were then carried over and completed Monday morning, adding further pressure to an already tight schedule.
And the US Open is not the only tournament that has been fighting the weather this summer. Rain also repeatedly disrupted the Cincinnati Open, including August 17, when play was stopped three separate times and players were forced on and off court throughout the day.
Novak Djokovic avoided Sunday’s overnight postponement, but he was not completely untouched by the rain. His match at Arthur Ashe Stadium was briefly halted while the roof was closed before play resumed. Louis Armstrong Stadium had a bigger problem, with a mechanical issue involving one of the roof sensors delaying its closure for more than 30 minutes before the court also had to be dried.
But the weather threat is not over yet. Tuesday is expected to stay unsettled around Flushing Meadows, with scattered showers throughout the day, temperatures climbing from about 71°F to 87°F, and the rain risk increasing again in the evening. Wednesday looks cooler, around 69°F to 75°F, but scattered showers are still expected for much of the day, keeping another round of interruptions firmly in play.
For now, organizers have avoided another overnight backlog.
The two straight days of weather setbacks are hardly the start organizers would have wanted. Monday’s affected matches, including Dimitrov and Popyrin, resumed after a one-hour delay, with play getting back underway across the courts instead of spilling into Tuesday morning as it did the day before.
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