Thursday was a difficult day for all the players involved in the qualifying action in Flushing Meadows, as a tight schedule including all the second round's matches was heavily interrupted by rain conditions. Only 16 out of 32 matches got successfully completed, while 8 duels are delayed to be finished today and another 8 matches are still yet to start.
The match between Dayana Yastremska and Eugenie Bouchard was surely a highlight of whole the women's second round of qualies. The Ukrainian has defeated the former world's number 5 in three sets. Yastremska was a confident favorite related to odds, while having much more match practice under her belt and approaching the US Open qualies just after winning the WTA 125 challenger played on hard courts in Poland. Despite an easy win in opening set, Yastremska did not manage to close the match in straight sets, as Bouchard bounced back to force a decider. The Ukrainian regrouped herself well enough to dominate third set and moved into final round of qualies with a score 6-1 4-6 6-1.
Yastremska sets up another great match-up in a final round of qualies, as she will meet Elena Gabriela Ruse there. The Romanian, ranked 51th in the world previously in the career, has fought an intense battle against qualies 17th seed - Dalma Galfi, eliminating the Hungarian with a score 4-6 6-1 7-5.
Na Lae Han performed the biggest upset so far in second round of qualies. The player from South Korea, who is ranked 243th in WTA list, defeated 8th seed Lucrezia Stefanini despite being rated with an odd 2.65. It was quite a crazy match, which ended up after more than 3 hours after decisive tiebreak. Han could end this up much earlier, as she was serving for the match within a score 5-4 in second set. Stefanini managed to force a decider, where the Korean had another chance in 12th game, but wasted the first matchpoint opportunity. Han has finally confirmed the upset, winning by 6-4 5-7 7-6(4).
Elizabeth Mandlik will be the opponent of Han in third round, being one of three Americans already set up to play in the final round of qualies. Mandlik prevailed against 24th seed Ana Bondar in one of the most interesting match-ups of second round on paper. Sachia Vickery won in three sets against 31th sets Viktorija Golubic, but still waits for her last opponent in a road to US Open main draw. Katie Volynets defeated Celine Naef 6-3 6-4 and sets up an intriguing battle against Erika Andreeva in last round. The Russian has confidently won her match against 17 years-old Croatian Petra Marcinko, moving past with a score 6-4 6-2.
The matches which were decided to be continued on Friday were interrupted in very different phases. Some of them got suspended after just a few games played, while the others were stopped due to rain while moving very close to the final settlement. The match between Fiona Crawley and Timea Babos will be resumed today after 3 hours of play within a score 5-5 in decisive tiebreak. The 22 years-old American is one of the most interesting names in the qualifying field. Crawley is a college player, ranked 731th in the WTA list. After winning the three-setter against Reka Luka Jani, the qualies wild card receiver gave some really hard conditions to play for another experienced Hungarian, Timea Babos. Third set of their match got interrupted after 90 minutes of play, while Crawley came back from being 0-3 down with a double break advantage of Babos. The final settlement will be very interesting there, with just a few decisive points to be played for a really big stake.
