Stefanos Tsitsipas and Alexander Zverev sail through US Open first round

Young pretenders Stefanos Tsitsipas and Alexander Zverev are up and running at this year’s US Open following impressive first-round wins.

Fourth seed Tsitsipas dropped just four games in a straight-sets destruction of Spain’s Albert Ramos-Vinolas.

The 22-year-old from Greece is yet to win a grand slam title but showed his potential by claiming the ATP Finals trophy at London’s O2 last year.

And with the likes of Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer absent this year at Flushing Meadows, Tsitsipas looks in the mood to go deep into the tournament following a 6-2 6-1 6-1 win.

He said: “I didn’t face any break points, I was very consistent with my serving. I was able to be aggressive and I had a clear picture of what I was doing.”

Zverev was, predictably, given a sterner test by former finalist Kevin Anderson.

The big-serving South African took the second set but German Zverev had too much for the 34-year-old, winning 7-6 (2) 5-7 6-3 7-5.

Zverev, 23, has now won all six of his matches against Anderson.

He said: “You don’t want to go down 2-1 in any match, but especially against Kevin.

“I’m actually quite happy with a first round like that, you don’t usually play someone like Kevin in the first round. It’s like a fourth round, a quarter-final or a semi-final against him.”

Canada’s 12th seed Denis Shapovalov needed treatment on a back problem but the 21-year-old came through in four sets against American wild card Sebastian Korda.