US Open Tennis 2021 Results: Winners, Scores from Wednesday's Singles Bracket

Simona Halep's return to the Grand Slam stage has gone as well as possible. 

The No. 12 seed in the U.S. Open women's singles draw won her second straight match in two sets to become one of the first players to secure a spot in the third round. 

Halep caught a break Wednesday when she was moved to Arthur Ashe Stadium during warm-ups. That change occurred after Olga Danilovic withdrew from the tournament and put Naomi Osaka into the third round. Some of the play on the outside courts was delayed because of inclement weather.

Daniil Medvedev followed Halep on Ashe and delivered an even more dominant performance in straight sets against Dominik Koepfer. 

The No. 2 seed in the men's draw is viewed as the biggest threat to Novak Djokovic's Grand Slam quest. He has looked like a potential Grand Slam champion through two matches. 

              

Wednesday Results

Men's Singles

No. 2 Daniil Medvedev def. Dominik Koepfer, 6-4, 6-1, 6-2

No. 5 Andrey Rublev def. Pedro Martinez, 7-6 (2), 6-7 (5), 6-1, 6-1

Botic van de Zandschulp def. No. 8 Casper Ruud, 3-6, 6-4, 6-3, 6-4

No. 12 Felix Auger-Aliassime def. Bernabe Zapata Miralles, 7-6 (5), 6-3, 6-2

Alexei Popyrin def. No. 15 Grigor Dimitrov, 7-6 (4), 7-6 (4), 4-0 (retired)

Henri Laaksonen def. No. 16 Cristian Garin, 3-6, 7-6 (5), 6-2, 6-4

No. 18 Roberto Bautista Agut def. Emil Ruusuvuori, 6-1, 6-3, 6-2

No. 24 Dan Evans def. Marcos Giron, 6-4, 7-6 (3), 2-6, 6-3   

Medvedev put in a thorough performance over three sets to cruise into the third round. 

The Russian faced a small challenge from Koepfer in the first set, but he held the German to three victorious games in the final two frames. 

Medvedev hit 23 winners, delivered eight aces and won 80 percent of his first-serve points. 

Due to a few upsets in his section of the draw, Medvedev will not see a top-20 seed until the quarterfinals. Grigor Dimitrov, the No. 15 seed, was forced to retire in the third set of his match with Alexei Popyrin.

Popyrin, and Medvedev's next opponent, Pablo Andujar, are the two unseeded players still alive in that portion of the draw.

Dan Evans is the likely foe for Medvedev in the fourth round. The 24th-seed won two straight four-set matches to set up his clash with Popyrin.

No. 5 seed Andrey Rublev also needed four sets to carve out his position in the third round. He split tiebreak victories with Pedro Martinez before he went into cruise control in the third and fourth sets. 

Rublev produced 22 winners and went 5-of-11 on break points in his final two sets against the Spaniard. 

Casper Ruud became the second top 10 seed to exit the men's bracket. He fell in four sets against Dutch qualifier Botic van de Zandschulp.

Ruud won the first set of the contest, but he was unable to match that quality in any of the three following sets. 

Ruud and Pablo Carreno Busta are the two top-10 seeds out of the draw. Fifteen of the 32 seeded men have been eliminated in the first three days of competition. 

        

Women's Singles

No. 5 Elina Svitolina def. Rebeka Masarova, 6-2, 7-5

No. 8 Barbora Krejcikova def. Christina McHale, 6-3, 6-1

No. 9 Garbine Muguruza def. Andrea Petkovic, 6-4, 6-2

No. 12 Simona Halep def. Kristina Kucova, 6-3, 6-1

No. 15 Elise Mertens def. Valentini Grammatikopoulou, 6-2, 6-2

No. 18 Victoria Azarenka def. Jasmine Paolini, 6-3, 7-6 (1)

No. 19 Elena Rybakina def. Caroline Garcia, 6-1, 6-4

No. 20 Ons Jabeur def. Maria Camila Osorio Serrano, 6-0, 6-1

No. 25 Daria Kasatkina def. Marketa Vondrousova, 3-6, 6-4, 6-4

No. 26 Danielle Collins def. Kaja Juvan, 6-4, 6-2

Kamilla Rakhimova def. No. 32 Ekaterina Alexandrova, 6-4, 6-1

Halep is starting to gain form on the New York hard courts after an extended injury layoff cost her most of the 2021 season. 

The two-time Grand Slam champion made quick work of Kristina Kucova in the afternoon's first match on the showcase court. 

Halep won 76 percent of her first-serve points and produced nine more winners against her Slovakian opponent. 

The competition will get much tougher for the Romanian since all of the seeded players in her portion of the draw are still alive. No. 5 seed Elina Svitolina, who has two straight-set victories of her own, will face No. 25 seed Daria Kasatkina in the top part of that section. 

If Svitolina and Halep both come out on top in the third round, we could see one of the matches of the tournament from the opening week. 

Garbine Muguruza and Victoria Azarenka may stake claim to playing in the match of the tournament in the third round. The pair of experienced Europeans set up their head-to-head showdown with two of the first victories of the day. 

The marquee clash of the second round takes place Wednesday night, when Americans Coco Gauff and Sloane Stephens face off on Ashe.

      

Statistics obtained from USOpen.org.