Rain leaves US Open qualifying with a Friday finish

Toby Samuel reached the US Open main draw after Cristian Garin retired, but Jacob Fearnley, Harry Wendelken, Heather Watson and Harriet Dart were among those pushed into a crowded Friday qualifying finish.

US Open qualifying has not quite got out of the way. Thursday brought a handful of final-round winners, a Fan Week hit on Arthur Ashe Stadium and a long list of postponed matches, leaving Friday to finish the job before the singles draws can be filled properly.

For the British players, it was a split sort of day. Toby Samuel is through. Jacob Fearnley and Harry Wendelken were stopped mid-match. Heather Watson against Harriet Dart, the all-British contest that guarantees one British woman a place in the main draw, was carried over without starting.

Samuel gets through as others have to wait

Samuel’s route into the main draw came in unusual fashion. The seventh seed had recovered from a set down against Cristian Garin and led 4-6, 6-4, 5-0 when the Chilean retired. It was an abrupt finish, with the scoreline showing Samuel had already dragged the match firmly his way.

Fearnley still has work to do. The fourth seed was 6-4, 4-6, 2-3 against Jurij Rodionov when play was postponed on Court 5, so that one comes back on Friday with very little room for a slow restart. Wendelken is in a similar holding pattern after his match with Vilius Gaubas was stopped at 7-6, 4-5 to the Lithuanian.

Watson and Dart move to Friday

The Watson-Dart match never reached court on Thursday. It is now listed on Court 8 for Friday, with Watson facing the 29th-seeded Dart for a place in the main draw.

That keeps the clean British storyline intact for one more day: one of them will qualify, one of them will be left with a very sharp near-miss. Fran Jones also has a Friday final-round match, against Joanna Garland, after her scheduled Thursday slot was cancelled and moved across.

A few places were settled

Coleman Wong, the second seed in men’s qualifying, beat Dusan Lajovic 6-4, 6-3. Tomas Barrios Vera also moved through, beating Daniel Rincon 6-4, 6-3, while Andrea Guerrieri beat Aziz Dougaz 6-2, 6-4. Grigor Dimitrov advanced by walkover against Otto Virtanen.

On the women’s side, Gabriela Knutson beat Ekaterine Gorgodze 6-4, 6-4, Robin Montgomery came through against Carson Branstine 2-6, 6-2, 6-2, Lucrezia Stefanini beat Julieta Pareja 6-4, 6-3, and Polina Iatcenko beat Andrea Lazaro Garcia 7-5, 6-1.

Andreescu, Zheng and the Friday backlog