Tuesday, August 25th, 2015 marked the opening day of qualifying for the 2015 US Open. 64 men and women are fighting to get that one spot in the main draw at the last Grand Slam of the year. How did Americans and seeded players do?

Americans Go 10/19 on Day One

On the opening day of play, Americans had mixed results.

Juniors Michael Mmoh, Tornado Alicia Black and reigning Wimbledon Boys’ Singles champion Taylor Fritz all lost in straight sets to seeded and much more experienced players.

However, there were some things for the Americans to cheer about as 2014 Wimbledon Boys’ Singles champion Noah Ruben, 16-year-old Catherine “CiCi” Bellis, 2009 U.S. Open quarter finalist Melanie Oudin and cancer survivor Victoria Duval were amongst the list of ten Americans who survived the first hurdle.

On the men’s side, Noah Ruben defeated Liang-Chi Huang 6-2, 7-5 to earn his first win at a Grand Slam. 2015 French Open Boys’ Singles champion Tommy Paul overcame the scorching heat to upset 24th seed Blaz Rola 6-3, 4-6, 6-4, while Pan American bronze medallist Dennis Novikov rallied from a set down to defeat Gastao Elias in three tough sets.

On the women’s side, there were more success stories than the men. First off, 16-year-old Catherine Bellis who made a splash at the U.S. Open last year, by defeating 2014 Australian Open finalist Dominika Cibulkova in the first round of the main draw, had to battle past 44-year-old Kimiko Date-Krumm in some hot and humid conditions in the first round of the qualifying draw. (Just a side note: These two women are 28 years apart in age.) In a battle of youth versus experienced, it was the youth that trumped the old. Bellis overcame Date-Krumm 4-6, 6-1, 6-4.

2009 U.S. Open quarter finalist Melanie Oudin, who has been sidelined after being diagnosed with arrhythmia which makes her heart rate go up considerably and stay high for hours at a time, returned to Flushing Meadows in an attempt to recapture the magic that got her wins over Elena Dementieva and Maria Sharapova six years ago. Oudin defeated Bulgarian Elitsa Kostova 6-3, 7-5 to keep her dream alive.

Cancer survivor Victoria Duval who made a successful return to the professional tour at the ITF tournament in Landisville two weeks ago, defeated the tricky Luksika Kumkhum 5-7, 6-3, 6-1 to score her biggest win since Wimbledon 14 months ago. Other notable winners included talented juniors Claire Liu and Raveena Kingsley, Jessica Pegula and Shelby Rogers.

Other Notable Winners on Day One Include Gasparyan, Mathieu, Shvedova, Karatsev, Cirstea, Vekic, Amongst Others

Other notable winners on day one included number one seeds Margarita Gasparyan and Paul-Henri Mathieu both won in straight sets to keep their respective 2015 U.S. Open campaigns alive. What about the other seeds?

On the men’s side, Russian Aslan Karatsev upset number 4 seed Tatsuma Ito, 6-3, 7-5, causing the biggest upset of the day. Great Britain’s Brydan Klein upset number 8 seed Dusan Lajovic 4-6, 6-1, 6-2.

On the ladies side, some of the winners included number two seed Yaroslava Shvedova overcame Frenchwoman Virginie Razzano, Sorana Cirstea who defeated Na-Lae Han and talented junior Jelena Ostapenko. 2015 French Open Girls’ Singles champion Paula Badosa Gibert defeated Ons Jabeur, 7-6(2), 2-6, 6-4 in a battle that lasted more than two hours under the hot sun.

Donna Vekic, who has been in the news recently for the wrong reasons, seemed to have put all of the controversy behind her to defeat Riko Sawayanagi 3-6, 7-5, 6-4 in a match that had her enraged to in tears at one point in the match. The supervisor, former chair umpire Kerrilyn Cramer, also had to come out onto court during the third set after Vekic had requested to talk to her after she had had enough with the chair umpire’s bad calls, that went against her.

It wasn’t all smooth sailing for the seeds in the women’s draw though as Maryna Zanevska defeated 10th seed Kristyna Pliskova and Mandy Minella defeated 29th seed Stefanie Voegele. Both seeded players lost in straight sets.

With one day already done for the 2015 US Open qualifying draw, what surprises might we see on day two?