Top seed and defending Novak Djokovic is undefeated in US Open second-round matches (13-0), but Argentine Juan Ignacio Londero will look to change that on Wednesday in New York. Third seed and five-time US Open champion Roger Federer, fifth seed Daniil Medvedev and seventh seed Kei Nishikori also headline a busy Day 3 schedule.

Londero won his first ATP Tour title this February in Cordoba (d. Garin), but his recent Top 30 win over Matteo Berrettini at the Western & Southern Open showed he can excel on all surfaces. However, the World No. 1 from Serbia is a much taller order, particularly at Grand Slams. Djokovic is 51-2 in second-round matches at Grand Slams since the 2006 Australian Open and has won 34 of his past 35 matches at majors.

Djokovic also has history on his mind this fortnight. He’s aiming for his 17th Grand Slam crown, which would put him within one title of second-placed Nadal (18) and inching closer to all-time leader Federer (20).

“It’s still a very long way ahead of me. It does also put a certain level of responsibility to me as well because I am aiming to do that. It’s definitely one of my ambitions and goals,” said Djokovic. “I am 32, so things are a little bit different than they were 10 years ago, but I still feel young inside and outside. I am still very motivated to keep going.”

Federer continues his 19th US Open campaign against Bosnian Damir Dzumhur. The Swiss is also undefeated (18-0) in second-round matches in New York, but being stretched to four sets by Indian qualifier Sumit Nagal in his opening round on Monday showed that his opponents believe records are meant to be broken. Federer will take comfort in his 2-0 lead over Dzumhur in their FedEx ATP Head2Head rivalry, dropping just 16 games in the six sets they’ve played.

“This is probably the best I’ve felt in years coming into the US Open again, which is encouraging,” said Federer. “It’s going to be a tough tournament to win, no doubt about it. I feel like I’m part of that group who can do it.”

Who will win the latest @FedEx ATP Head2Head clash between these players?#USOpen

— ATP Tour (@ATP_Tour) August 28, 2019

Medvedev looks to continue his top-form against Bolivian Hugo Dellien. The Russian is coming off the best three-week run of his career, winning his first ATP Masters 1000 title in Cincinnati (d. Goffin) and finishing runner-up at the Coupe Rogers (l. to Nadal) and Citi Open (l. to Kyrgios). Although Medvedev downplayed himself as a favourite to win this year, pointing out that he’s never reached a Grand Slam quarter-final, that could change if he keeps up his current level.

“These [past] three weeks, I basically didn’t have any downs. I had only great matches,” said Medvedev. “Hopefully I can bring this confidence on the court for two weeks or more.”

Nishikori takes on American Bradley Klahn, who looks to reach the third round at a Grand Slam for the first time. The Japanese spent only 47 minutes on court in his opening round on Monday before Argentine Marco Trungelliti retired due to injury, which could aid in keeping him fresh as the tournament progresses. But after opening-round exits in Montreal and Cincinnati, the seventh seed will be seeking a full match and a tough test against Klahn to gauge his level.

Other notable second-round matches on Wednesday include former US Open champion and No. 23 seed Stan Wawrinka of Switzerland taking on Frenchman Jeremy Chardy, No. 12 seed Borna Coric of Croatia facing Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov, and No. 15 seed David Goffin of Belgium squaring off with Frenchman Gregoire Barrere.

ORDER OF PLAY – WEDNESDAY, 28 August 2019

Arthur Ashe Stadium start 12:00
WTA match
[2] Roger Federer vs Damir Dzumhur

NB 7:00 pm
Novak Djokovic vs Juan Ignacio Londero
WTA match

Louis Armstrong Stadium start 11:00
[7] Kei Nishikori vs Bradley Klahn
Two WTA matches

NB 7:00 pm
WTA match
[12] Borna Coric vs Grigor Dimitrov

Grandstand start 11:00
WTA match
[5] Daniil Medvedev vs Hugo Dellien
[23] Stan Wawrinka vs Jeremy Chardy
WTA match

Court No. 17 start 11:00
Two WTA matches
[27] Dusan Lajovic vs Denis Kudla
Reilly Opelka vs Dominik Koepfer

Click here to view the schedule for all other courts.

If you’re hoping to ease your way into a Grand Slam, Thomas Fabbiano is not the man you want to face. Just one month after defeating Stefanos Tsitsipas in the opening round at Wimbledon, the Italian scored another first-round stunner at the US Open by defeating fourth-seeded Austrian Dominic Thiem 6-4, 3-6, 6-3, 6-2.

The upset in Arthur Ashe Stadium marked Thiem’s first opening-round exit in New York. The Austrian was considered by many to be a prime contender in New York after defeating Roger Federer this March for his first ATP Masters 1000 title at the BNP Paribas Open. 

Although Fabbiano was brave in attacking when he had opportunities and showed impressive defence, Thiem struggled to find his footing. The 25-year-old hit 17 winners to 28 unforced errors in the last two sets, with more than half of the mistakes coming from his normally reliable backhand wing.

“I got very, very tired and exhausted after two sets. I’m far away from 100 per cent. Like this, it’s very tough to win,” said Thiem. “I went on court because in tennis, especially in long two-week tournaments, anything can happen.”

After battling hard to level the match at one set apiece, the Austrian hit nine unforced errors in the first three games of the third set. Thiem was unable to recover from his slow start and Fabbiano went on to take a commanding advantage.

Sensing his opportunity, the Italian saved his best tennis for the final stages of the match. Fabbiano took advantage of Thiem standing well behind the baseline in rallies, predominately serving out wide and carving out short angles before successfully gambling on down-the-line winners. A forehand winner on match point saw Fabbiano raise his arms in triumph after two hours and 23 minutes.

Fabbiano continues to excel on big stages this season, with five of his 10 tour-level victories this year coming in Grand Slams. Awaiting the 30-year-old is Alexander Bublik of Kazakhstan, who picked up his first US Open win by outlasting Colombian qualifier Santiago Giraldo 2-6, 6-0, 7-5, 3-6, 6-4. The 21-year-old reached his first ATP Tour final last month in Newport (l. to Isner). 

John Isner scored a dominant win on Tuesday, firing 29 aces and 55 total winners to ease past Guillermo Garcia-Lopez of Spain 6-3, 6-4, 6-4. The No. 14 seed was equally impressive in his return games, racking up 14 break points and converting four to advance in one hour and 58 minutes. The American improves to 29-12 in New York and will now take on German Jan-Lennard Struff, who defeated #NextGenATP Norwegian Casper Ruud 6-4, 6-4, 6-2. Struff defeated Tsitsipas earlier this month in Cincinnati.

Italian Lorenzo Sonego enjoyed an equally comfortable path to the second round with a comprehensive 6-3, 6-4, 6-4 victory over Spaniard Marcel Granollers. The 24-year-old clinched his first ATP Tour crown this June in Antalya (d. Kecmanovic). Next up for Sonego is Spaniard Pablo Andujar, who earned his first Grand Slam win in four years by upsetting No. 30 seed Kyle Edmund 3-6, 7-6(1), 7-5, 5-7, 6-2.

After two hours and 45 minutes of play on Court 12 Monday afternoon, Denis Kudla hit a serve down the T, forcing an error from Janko Tipsarevic. The Serbian put his hand to his lips, then reached down to the baseline as if to say farewell.

Kudla defeated Tipsarevic 3-6, 6-1, 7-6(5), 6-1 in Tipsarevic’s final Grand Slam singles match. And after four more ATP Tour events (St. Petersburg, Chengdu, Shanghai and Moscow), the Serbian will play Davis Cup and officially retire from professional tennis.

“I was digging today. I spoke to my coach very briefly after the match. This was a sign that it’s time, because I was playing a good first set, not a great second set, but you could see that my energy level, even though I was practising decent for the past 10 days, was going up and down, up and down, up and down. Normally before, when I was playing my best tennis, my energy was constantly up and this was the factor which was overwhelming my opponents, kind of like a David Ferrer way of playing,” Tipsarevic said. “Losing in four [sets] because of fatigue is a sign that I don’t see myself doing this in 2020.”

Retirement has been on Tipsarevic’s mind since the first half of the season. The 35-year-old has undergone seven lower body surgeries, putting his body through the ringer. But he still tried to come back and see how deep he could dig. In Miami, Tipsarevic won his first tour-level match in 570 days.

“As a family we wanted some kind of stability. In the past five years it was quite terrible that we didn’t know what we were doing, because it’s always if you do this, it’s not even what I want or what my family wants, it’s what tennis as a sport needs. So it was always this mix. Am I playing? Am I doing surgeries? Am I recovering? Am I competing? And then surgery again. And obviously all of these ups and downs, no matter how strong I tried to stay, they were really affecting my mood,” Tipsarevic said. “[The first part is] my body. My body’s not allowing me to come to the level where it would make me happy to continue playing tennis. And I’m not even talking Top 10, I’m talking about potentially Top 30. If I don’t see myself that I am able to be Top 30, for me competing and playing tennis is not fun.”

Tipsarevic has also devoted a lot of time to his academy, which he is franchising in four different countries in 2020.

“I’ve been on this guilt trip for quite some time because if I devote too much time to the business side of this because setting all of this up took a lot of time… if I devote a lot of time towards that, I see that part growing and going in the right direction,” Tipsarevic said. “But then I’m not a tennis player. I’m completely something else, and then I put tennis on the third or fourth place in my schedule during the day. And if I devote myself to be a 100 per cent tennis player, this takes six to seven hours.”

The motto Tipsarevic is instilling at his academy and that he has also used during his career is ‘keep digging’. He did not have much left to prove after competing in the Nitto ATP Finals twice, in 2011 and 2012. But even as his body let him down, Tipsarevic battled back.

“When you read fairytales about a hidden treasure, there is normally obstacles. The hidden treasure is somewhere near the end of the book. Normally there is a sea monster and whatever, a hidden map and that’s what you need to overcome to reach it. My big belief is that our hopes and dreams are normally not on the surface,” Tipsarevic said. “If you really want something, you really need to dig. And you really need to dig deep, even when you don’t feel like digging. This is what kept me going and trying to come back. And even if I didn’t, I came back twice. Once Top 50, once 70, but I never regretted it.

“I would regret way more not trying to do it and five years after my first surgery saying, ‘Hey, I earned enough money, I’m going to buy some real estate and enjoy my life.’ But like this, I feel you grow tremendously as a person.”

Tipsarevic has won five tour-level matches this season, but he has not been able to crack the Top 250 of the ATP Rankings. Nevertheless, the former World No. 8 is happy that he pushed himself once again to at least give a comeback a shot.

“I think I really tried everything. A lot of the time in the past few years I had comments, ‘What the hell are you doing, doing all these surgeries and still trying to come back and still working and still practising?’ But I guess this is who I am. This is what made me have a decent tennis career,” Tipsarevic said. “I feel if I didn’t have that aspect of a fighter, I wouldn’t have reached what I have reached in my career. Right now it’s a bit emotional because it’s my last Grand Slam, it’s my favourite Grand Slam. But I’m at peace with it because I feel that it’s time.”

World No. 1 Novak Djokovic has known Tipsarevic since he was nine or 10 years old.

“He was always a role model for all of the young players in Serbia and my generation because he was doing so well,” Djokovic said. “He was the best junior of the world and he was someone that had a very promising career in front of him in professional tennis, judging by his results in junior tennis and had a really good professional career, two Top 10 year-end finishes and also quarter-finals of Slams.”

At the same time, Djokovic knows as well as anyone that his good friend has struggled physically in recent years. It’s less than two years ago that he himself was dealing with an elbow injury.

“It’s sad to see him leave, but at the same time, considering what he has been through with his body in the last three years, it’s kind of understandable. He had a lot of surgeries and injuries. And he just didn’t manage, unfortunately, to get back on that track where he was a Top 10 player,” Djokovic said. “I wish him obviously all the best.”

Tipsarevic owns 286 tour-level wins, four ATP Tour titles and more than $8 million in prize money. But the Serbian does not want to be remembered primarily by his results and on-court accomplishments.

“I want to be remembered as a guy who really gave everything he could, wasn’t able to come back to where he was and still am very happy about it. This sends a message to a lot of young and talented players who are very, very scared of failing because facing reality and giving everything you have, you might face a reality where you see that you’re not good enough. But obviously being Top 10 for two years is something very close and personal to me, something that I wanted all my life I think outside of winning a Slam, which I never did,” Tipsarevic said. “Failed is a big word in that, because everybody’s expecting this fairytale ending that there’s a guy with seven surgeries coming back to his glory days to the Top 10. But it doesn’t really matter. It’s way more important the failing part, because you become a winner in life. If you have this attitude you send this attitude not only to your other businesses, but your friends, families and kids, hopefully, which is eventually how you become a winner.”