First Naomi, then Roger, now Shintaro. No. 1 boys' seed and reigning Wimbledon boys' champion Shintaro Mochizuki is just the latest in a string of upsets at the 2019 US Open in Flushing Meadows. Argentine Alejo Lorenzo Lingua Lavallen defeated the Japanese 16-year-old in three sets, 4-6, 7-6, 6-2. Mochizuki was up a break in the second set, then led 5-2 in the tiebreak, and had a match point at 6-5. He struggled on break points all match, converting just 4 of his 15 opportunities. Conversely, Lingua Lavallen, who names Rafael Nadal as his idol, converted 5 of 7.
"Today is very special, playing at the US Open," Lingua Lavallen told spectators on Court 17 after the match.
With Mochizuki's loss, the No. 1 and No. 2 seeds in both the boys' and girls' draws have all exited the tournament before the third round. (The girls' No. 1, American Emma Navarro, and boys' No. 2, Holger Vitus Nodskov Rune of Denmark, both lost Tuesday in the second round, and girls' No. 2, France's Diane Parry, fell Monday in the first round.)
Boys' No. 6 seed, American Toby Alex Kodat, also took an early loss as German qualifier Milan Welte prevailed in their second-round contest, 6-2, 7-6. Kodat led 5-2 in the second set before Welte, who also took out two seeds in the qualifying tournament, battled back.
All other seeded players playing on Wednesday advanced to the third round, including a pair of Americans: boys' No. 11 Brandon Nakashima, who defeated Switzerland's Leandro Riedi in three sets, 6-4, 3-6, 6-2, and girls' No. 13 Abigail Forbes, who dismissed China's Zhuoxuan Bai, 6-3, 6-4.
American 17-year-old Katie Volynets, who took on Bianca Andreescu in the first round of the women's draw as a wild card, fell to girls' No. 4 seed, Maria Camila Osorio Serrano of Colombia, 6-4, 6-4. Volynets had a break lead in each set but couldn't sustain it, committing too many errors while Osorio Serrano hit 24 winners and defended well.
Doubles action continued on Wednesday as well. In boys' doubles, American team Eliot Spizzirri and Tyler Zink battled hard and overcame their opponents, Australian Stefan Storch and Ukrainian Eric Vanshelboim, in a super tiebreak, 6-7, 6-1, 10-5. And the No. 1 girls' doubles team of American Alexa Noel and Parry once again rolled past their opponents, Slovakia's Romana Cisovska and Russia's Anastasia Tikhonova, in 55 minutes (two minutes shorter than their first-round match), 6-2, 6-2.
