More Australians Exit as Rain Throws US Open Schedule Into Chaos

Taylah Preston's US Open adventure lasted just 48 minutes after the Australian wildcard suffered a 6-1, 6-1 second-round loss to big-hitting American Taylor Townsend.

The 20-year-old was the first Australian to reach the second round and the first from the group scheduled on day four to leave the tournament. Australia's women's No. 1, Daria Kasatkina, also exited, although she pushed Spain's Paula Badosa much harder.

Their stop-start match resumed after rain had interrupted play on Tuesday morning, Australian Eastern time. Kasatkina had saved a third match point before officials stopped the contest for the night. Badosa returned 15 hours later needing to serve out the match at 5-4 and deuce in the second set.

Kasatkina saved two match points in an epic 22-point game while serving at 3-5, then fought off six more. She created two break-point chances to level the set at 5-5, but Badosa, a former world No. 2, finally closed out the match and earned a second-round meeting with 2023 champion Coco Gauff.

Maya Joint was scheduled to face ninth seed Elina Svitolina, while Kim Birrell was due to play Russia's 18th seed Ekaterina Alexandrova. Birrell entered the match believing she could cause another upset after beating world No. 5 Jessica Pegula at the French Open.

Rain also delayed Alex de Minaur's opening match again. Former champion Daniil Medvedev and American Alex Michelsen had reached the third round before de Minaur took the court. He moved quickly against Italian qualifier Andrea Guerrieri, building a 6-2, 4-2 lead in 49 minutes, but another downpour sent him back to the locker room. The backlog leaves Australia's leading men's hope needing seven best-of-five-set wins in 12 days to lift the trophy.