Toby Samuel has reached the main draw of a Grand Slam tournament for the second time in his career, after Chilean Cristian Garin retired while trailing 5-0 in the deciding set. The 23-year-old British number five was leading 4-6, 6-4, 5-0 when rain interrupted play in New York, and Garin was unable to continue afterwards.
Samuel, who made his Grand Slam debut at the French Open in May and later received a wild card to compete at Wimbledon, is currently ranked 110th in the world. As the seventh seed in the qualifying tournament, his performance will see him move closer to breaking into the top 100, benefiting from the ranking points earned. He now awaits the completion of the remaining qualifying matches to learn his first-round opponent in the main draw.
In other British qualifying news, Jacob Fearnley holds a break disadvantage as his match against Austria’s Jurij Rodionov was halted by rain, with Fearnley trailing 2-3 in the third set after splitting the opening sets 6-4, 4-6. Fearnley is scheduled to resume play on Friday.
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World number 196 Harry Wendelken was also impacted by the weather, trailing Vilius Gaubas of Lithuania 6-7 (3), 5-4 when their match was paused.
The all-British matchup between Heather Watson and Harriet Dart, along with Fran Jones' match against Taiwan’s Joanna Garland, are yet to commence and will be played on Friday.
Bristol’s Katie Swan, however, was eliminated in the second qualifying round after losing to American Mary Stoiana 6-7 (5-7), 6-3, 6-3. Swan had earlier defeated wild card Katrina Scott 6-3, 6-1 in the first round.