WHAT HAPPENED: No. 29 seed Alison Riske-Amritraj beat 17 year-old Eleana Yu 6-2, 6-4 on Day 1 of the 2022 US Open at the USTA Billie Jean King National Center. Yu came out of the gates swinging in her US Open women’s singles debut, fresh off a championship run at the USTA Girls’ 18s National Championships that earned her a US Open wild card. She aced her first serve against her American compatriot, but struggled to maintain that momentum throughout the match as Riske-Amritraj broke Yu twice in the first set.
Although Riske-Amritraj won in straight sets, the two were evenly matched. Yu sent her opponent running back and forth along the baseline, while Riske-Amritraj’s deep ground strokes continually forced Yu back.
The wild card came back with a vengeance in the second set. Riske-Amritraj broke Yu in the first game after four long rallies and unforced errors by both players, but Yu held her serve in subsequent games. Riske-Amritraj had a match point, but Yu battled back to bring the score to deuce, then won on her second advantage after an unforced error by the US Open veteran, bringing the score to 5-4.
Riske-Amritraj was leading 40-0 in the final game, but squandered one match point with an unforced error. Yu reciprocated on the next point, ending the rally and the match with a forehand forced error.
WHAT IT MEANS: This is Riske-Amritraj’s third trip to Round 2 in Queens, in a season where she also reached Round 2 at the Australian Open and Roland Garros and Round 3 at Wimbledon. But her season started strongly on hard courts: She made it to the final of Adelaide 250 in January where she lost to Madison Keys. She also reached the final of the Rothesay Open Nottingham in June, where she was defeated on grass in three sets by Beatriz Haddad Maia of Brazil.
Riske-Amritraj will go on to play Colombian Camila Osorio, who beat American Ann Li in their first-round match from a set down. This will be the first time the two women have met. Riske-Amritraj is coming straight off a trip to the Round of 16 in Cincinnati, where the unseeded Osorio lost in qualifying.
MATCH POINT: Riske-Amritraj married Stephen Amritraj in 2019, the son of former tennis player Anand Amritraj and nephew of Vijay Amritraj, just weeks after she made it to the quarterfinals at Wimbledon.
