Holger Rune left to rue ill-advised tweet after early US Open exit

EARLY EXIT: Holger Rune, of Denmark, reacts during a match against Roberto Carballes Baena, of Spain, during the first round of the US Open. Pic: AP Photo/John Minchillo

Holger Rune was left to regret tweeting a map of the US Open site to point spectators towards his first-round match.

The Dane now needs directions to the exit after crashing out in four sets to Spain's Roberto Carballes Baena.

Rune, seeded fourth, was clearly miffed at being shunted away on one of Flushing Meadows' tiny outside courts and sarcastically wrote "in case you can find Court 5, this is where I play my first match Monday".

The court is crammed in between the Arthur Ashe and Grandstand Stadiums, with pathways on either side where spectators can wander past.

And Rune's cheeky tweet backfired as hundreds swarmed around the court, craning their necks and standing on benches, to see the 20-year-old slip to defeat.

To rub salt in the wound, Rune even complained to the umpire about one noisy fan before eventually going down 6-3 4-6 6-3 6-2.

Also on Monday, Dominic Thiem picked up his first win at Flushing Meadows since he won the title in 2020.

The 29-year-old Austrian, a former world number three who is working his way back up the rankings after a long spell out injured, beat 25th seed Alexander Bublik 6-3 6-2 6-4.

In the women's singles, world number one Iga Swiatek helped herself to a New York bagel to get her US Open title defence off to the perfect start.

The 22-year-old from Poland dropped just eight points as she took the first set to love against Rebecca Peterson.

Sweden's Peterson did get on the board early in the second but Swiatek, bidding for a fifth grand-slam title, completed a comprehensive 6-0 6-1 victory in just 58 minutes.

"I really wanted to play solid and start the tournament with everything I practised on," she said.

"I'm happy to play such a great game and despite all the pressure and expectation I can still have fun on the court."

There was an early upset on day one at Flushing Meadows with eighth seed Maria Sakkari from Greece bowing out 6-4 6-4 to Spanish world number 71 Rebeka Masarova.

Elsewhere, Lily Miyazaki kicked off the British challenge by reaching the second round on her Flushing Meadows debut.

There were echoes of Emma Raducanu after the 27-year-old qualifier, Britain's sole representative on day one, beat Russian Margarita Betova 6-3 6-3.

The world number 199 may be unlikely to emulate Raducanu's fairy-tale title win two years ago, but she still secured a near-£100,000 pay day and a high-profile second-round match against Olympic champion Belinda Bencic.

"It's going to be a tough match for sure," said Miyazaki.

"But I guess the good thing is I've seen her play plenty of times and she probably doesn't know much about me."