Jabeur, Pegula advance into US Open second round

Tunisia's Ons Jabeur overcame a medical scare to battle into the second round of the US Open on Tuesday with a straight sets defeat of Colombia's Camila Osorio.

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Jabeur, chasing a first Grand Slam crown after three agonising defeats in finals since 2022, opened her US Open campaign with a 7-5, 7-6 (7/4) victory on the Louis Armstrong Stadium.

The 29-year-old looked to be struggling during a tense first set, complaining to the chair umpire that she was having difficulty breathing after Osorio fought back from 4-1 down to level at 4-4.

Jabeur needed treatment from medical staff after going 5-4 down in the first set, and appeared to have her blood pressure taken during a timeout.

She then rallied to take the first set and appeared to poised to clinch victory after holding two match points in the second set while 5-3 up.

However Osorio rallied to stave off defeat, and went on to level at 5-5 after breaking Jabeur.

Jabeur broke back immediately to take a 6-5 lead but was then broken once again to send the second set to a tie break.

Jabeur proved too strong for Osorio in the breaker, however, and will now face the Czech Republic's Linda Noskova in the second round.

PEGULA SWEEPS INTO ROUND TWO AT US OPEN

Women's third seed Jessica Pegula strolled into the second round as she brushed aside Italy's Camila Giorgi 6-2, 6-2.

Montreal champion Pegula, a six-time Grand Slam quarterfinalist, takes on Romania's Patricia Maria Tig or Rebecca Marino of Canada in the next round.

GARCIA OUSTED FROM US OPEN

Caroline Garcia's hopes of making another deep run at the US Open came to a quick end as the French seventh seed suffered a shock 6-4 6-1 first round loss to Chinese qualifier Yafan Wang.

Garcia, a semifinalist at Flushing Meadows last year who went on to claim the biggest title of her career two months later at the WTA Finals, was undone by 34 unforced errors against world number 114 Wang.

With the loss, Garcia will fall from the top 10 of the rankings to outside the top 20.

Wang, a former world number 47 who missed seven months of action in 2022 and was ranked 696th in March, has a 57-10 across all levels this year, including titles in five ITF events and the WTA 125 tournament in Stanford two weeks ago.