Khachanov upsets ailing Auger-Aliassime in US Open second round

Karen Khachanov, an unseeded Russian who has spent much of the past two years drifting outside tennis's top tier, eliminated third-seeded Felix Auger-Aliassime from the US Open on Thursday night, winning a four-set second-round match that turned strange when Auger-Aliassime said he grew dizzy and began seeing spots partway through it. Khachanov won 6-7(5), 6-3, 6-2, 6-2 on Louis Armstrong Stadium, according to the tournament's official match report, and afterward Auger-Aliassime said he considered retiring before deciding to play out a match he no longer felt physically capable of competing in.

The result was one of two seeded upsets in Flushing Meadows on the tournament's third day of singles play. In the earlier match on an adjacent court, Botic van de Zandschulp, a 2021 US Open quarterfinalist, beat sixth-seeded Alex de Minaur 6-4, 7-5, 6-2 to reach the third round, according to results published by the ATP Tour. Together the two results thinned out that section of the men's draw on a day when the tournament's marquee names, including defending champion Carlos Alcaraz, advanced without incident.

The numbers

Khachanov entered the match ranked No. 50 in the world; Auger-Aliassime, seeded third, was ranked No. 4, having climbed there on the strength of his run to the semifinals a year ago. The match lasted 3 hours and 16 minutes. Auger-Aliassime finished with 30 unforced errors and won just 41 percent of points on his second serve, a number well below the level he had shown in his first-round win over Rinky Hijikata. For Khachanov, the win was his first over a top-10 opponent this season, a marker of how far his ranking has slid since he last reached this tournament's semifinals, in 2022. In the concurrent upset, van de Zandschulp's win over de Minaur was his second victory over a top-10 player in as many weeks, a stretch that has quietly made him one of the form players of the North American hard-court swing.

How Auger-Aliassime's run unraveled

Auger-Aliassime had arrived at this year's tournament as one of its more credible outside threats to the top two seeds. He reached the US Open semifinals in 2021, losing to Novak Djokovic, and returned to the final four again in 2025, where he lost to Jannik Sinner in four sets — his second career semifinal at the tournament, a run detailed by Tennis Canada. That result carried him to a career-high ranking near the top of the sport and made him, entering this fortnight, a live threat in the same section of the draw as de Minaur.

Khachanov, by contrast, has spent the past two seasons rebuilding after reaching his own US Open semifinal in 2022 and a career-high ranking of No. 8 in 2019. He has slipped to the outer edge of the top 50 amid a run of early losses on tour, and he came into Thursday's match, by his own account, simply trying to compete point by point rather than chase a result. He took the second, third and fourth sets in convincing fashion once Auger-Aliassime's movement and serve began to falter.

De Minaur's loss extends a more familiar frustration. The Australian, who reached a career-high ranking of No. 5 earlier this year, has now reached seven Grand Slam quarterfinals across his career — at the Australian Open, French Open, Wimbledon and US Open — without ever advancing to a major semifinal. His exit to van de Zandschulp came before he even reached the second week, a step back from his quarterfinal runs at Flushing Meadows in 2024 and 2025.

Who is affected

The immediate consequence falls on Auger-Aliassime, who now goes home to undergo medical evaluation rather than continuing his run at this year's tournament. He said, in comments reported by Tennis365, that he had no warning signs before the match and does not yet know what caused the episode.

"After a set and a half, I just couldn't feel well and was dizzy and seeing spots and couldn't recover," Auger-Aliassime said, adding: "I've never felt quite like that. I've had cramps before. I've felt tired towards the end of matches, but in a normal way. This was abnormal a little bit, and there were no signs in the last couple of days and no signs this morning, as well."

Khachanov, who has dealt with his own stretch of frustrating results this season, was measured in assessing the win rather than treating it as a turning point. "I tried to give my best performance. I was fighting and I am super happy to get this win," he said, adding that he had arrived at the tournament with "the mindset to perform well and to try to take one step at a time" rather than fixating on his ranking. On the adjacent match, van de Zandschulp credited his serve and composure for the win over de Minaur. "I think that was the difference today," he said, pointing to "mentally staying there during the whole match" as the deciding factor down the stretch.

The result also reshapes that part of the men's draw. With both Auger-Aliassime and de Minaur out in the second round, the section that once looked like a proving ground for two established top-10 players is now left to Khachanov, van de Zandschulp and whoever else survives the next round — a considerably more open path than either seed's original draw suggested.

What happens next

Khachanov is scheduled to play the winner of the second-round match between Ignacio Buse and Benjamin Bonzi in the third round, a match that had not been completed as of Thursday night, per the ATP Tour's match report. Van de Zandschulp advances to face Zizou Bergs. Auger-Aliassime said he plans to consult with his team of doctors, fitness coaches and physiotherapists in the coming days to try to determine what caused the dizziness, with no timetable yet given for when he expects an explanation or when he will next play. The US Open's singles draws continue through the second week, with the men's final scheduled for the second Sunday of the tournament.