Five-time major champion Maria Sharapova has recorded a three-set win over Timea Babos to become the first player to reach the US Open third round.
After dropping the first set, Sharapova got better and better as the match wore on to prevail 6-7 (4-7) 6-4 6-1.
Sharapova is playing in her first Grand Slam tournament since serving a 15-month doping suspension.
She backed up her win over world No.2 Simona Halep in the first round on Arthur Ashe Stadium with victory over 59th-ranked Hungarian Babos on the same court.
“I just wanted to get it done today, and I did,” Sharapova said. “It wasn’t my best tennis.
“I felt like it was a scrappy match but some of those days can be the best, when you get through and give yourself another chance.
“Every day that I have another chance to play out here at the US Open is a special day.”
Sharapova will be a big favourite to at least make it through one more round, with her next opponent being Sofia Kenin.
The world No.139 beat Sachia Vickery 6-3 4-6 7-6 (7-0) in an all-American encounter.
Two-time US Open champion and Venus Williams reached the third round for the seventh Grand Slam tournament in a row with a 7-5 6-4 win over Oceane Dodin of France.
The 37-year-old Williams was broken while serving for each set but played well enough to hold off her big-hitting 20-year-old.
Williams, the ninth seed, will face Maria Sakkari next after the Greek eliminated Australian Arina Rodionova 7-5 6-3.
Title favourite Garbine Muguruza was on court late and wasted little tim in dispatching Duan Ying-ying 6-4 6-0.
In the final women’s match on Wednesday, Ekaterina Makarova of Russia held her nerve to oust fifth-seeded Caroline Wozniacki 6-2 6-7 (5-7) 6-1.
Sloane Stephens beat 11th-seeded Dominika Cibulkova of Slovakia 6-2 5-7 6-3, winning the right to face Australian Ashleigh Barty in the last 32.
Czech Petra Kvitova, the 13th seed, romped past Alize Cornet 6-1 6-2, while 16th-seed Latvian Anastasija Sevastova, 18th-seeded Caroline Garcia, 30th-seeded Julia Goerges and Magdalena Rybarikova, the 31st seed, all progressed to round three.
Donna Vekic of Croatia upset 22nd-seeded Peng Shuai 6-0 6-2, 29th-seeded Mirjana Lucic-Baroni lost to Carla Suarez Navarro and Serbian Aleksandra Krunic beat Australia’s Ajla Tomljanovic 6-3 6-2.
In first-round action on Wednesday, fourth-seeded Ukrainian Elina Svitolina saw off Katerina Siniakova and eighth-seeded Russian Svetlana Kuznetsova survived three match points in a 4-6 6-4 7-6 (7-2) victory over Marketa Vondrousova.
Tenth-seeded Pole Agnieszka Radwanska beat Petra Martic and Russian 17th seed Elena Vesnina defeated Anna Blinkova.
Other seeded players to reach the second round were American CoCo Vandeweghe, the 20th seed and China’s 27th-seeded Zhang Shuai.
Beaten seeds in the first round were Kristina Mladenovic, Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova and Estonian Anett Kontaveit.