John Millman has set up a shootout with big-serving American John Isner after making a successful return to professional tennis in New York.
Playing his first match since leading Australia to a Davis Cup qualifying victory over Brazil in March, Millman battled back from a set down to defeat Frenchman Adrian Mannarino 4-6 6-4 7-6 (7-2) at the Western & Southern Open.
It was the 2018 US Open quarter-finalist’s first outing at Flushing Meadows since losing in the opening round last year to eventual champion Rafael Nadal.
With no fans in attendance, the ghost-town atmosphere at the Billie Jean Tennis Centre was vastly different to when Millman faced Nadal, as well as Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic the previous year, in three successive matches at Arthur Ashe Stadium, the sport’s biggest arena.
But a win’s a win and nice preparation for the Australian No.3 ahead of the US Open starting next Monday.
Grigor Dimitrov, meanwhile, beat Frenchman Ugo Humbert 6-3 6-4 in his first match back since recovering from the coronavirus.
The Bulgarian No.14 seed tested positive in June following his participation in Novak Djokovic’s Adria Tour and described the experience as one of his “toughest battles” ever.
The former world No.3, who was a semi-finalist at the US Open last year, arrived in New York less than two days prior to his match against Humbert, and did well to dispatch the 22-year-old in 84 minutes.
“I had no expectation coming into the match,” said Dimitrov, a champion in Cincinnati in 2016.
“I arrived like a day and a half ago, I’m so jet-lagged right now, it’s crazy. There were a lot of obstacles clearly in the last couple of months, I just have to find a way.”
Dimitrov is still not back to 100 per cent physically, but said he wanted to challenge himself by attempting to compete in New York.
He detailed his struggles with the virus and hopes to serve as an example to other players, who may not be taking COVID-19 as serious as they should be.
“The first week was just tragic, coming out of it,” explained the 29-year-old.
“I started by just walking. I couldn’t really do any exercise, I could not lift weights, I couldn’t play tennis. So all I had to do was walk. I started actually crawling in the house, then walking outside, then slowly started to run a little bit each day.”
Dimitrov next takes on Hungarian qualifier Marton Fucsovics in the second round.
Other winners included Greek fourth seed Stefanos Tsitsipas, Russian No.11 seed Karen Khachanov and Britain’s Dan Evans, who took out Russian No.10 seed Andrey Rublev 7-5 3-6 6-2.
