US Open 2019: Osaka, Nadal, Halep and Edmund in action on day two – live!

Tsitsipas has broken back here – 2-2 in the second – and this could completely galvanise his confidence, which was clearly lacking earlier.

Men’s 24th seed Matteo Berretini is a set up, 6-1, against Richard Gasquet. And Bautista Agut, who won comfortably enough in his first set against Kukushkin, is now 5-0 down in the second!

Bit of a turnaround in that Vikhlyantseva v Gorges match. Remember how Gorges lost the first set 6-1? She’s just won the second by that very score!

Osaka gets underway quite soon, by the way, so we’ll have a big focus on that match before long …

Rublev breaks in the second set! And it comes from a needless Tsitsipas double fault. He is firmly in the driving seat here now, leading 3-1.

Kvitova won the first set against Allertova; Bencic is 3-1 up in the second set against Minella and closing in on a quickish victory.

Only a sprinkling of fans watching this one, which is a shame as it’s good fun. Rublev came under some pressure in his first service game of the second set but held to 30 and it’s 1-1.

Jelena Ostapenko, always a tricky prospect, leads Aleksandra Krunic by a set. So does Garbine Muguruza against Alison Riske.

Rublev takes the first set 6-4 against Tsitsipas with a superb ace. So we could see a seed on the way out as things stand. This was one of the toughest first-round ties Tsitsipas could have faced, to be fair, and he’s found Rublev to be in excellent nick. He’s looked very smooth throughout.

Men’s tenth seed Roberto Bautista Agut, who has never got beyond the fifth round here, is a set up over the Kazakh player Mikhail Kukushkin. Meanwhile Tsitsipas certainly seems to be over that early wobble but Rublev will now serve for the set …

Bencic has battled back against Minella to win that first set 6-3. Aliza Cornet has taken the first set against US hope Jessica Pegula, winning 6-2.

Twice quarter-finalist Petra Kvitova is among others in action right now. She’s the sixth seed and, at 4-2 up in the first set against her compatriot Denisa Allertova, is looking good.

Tsitsipas does seem to have got over that early knee problem and is showing signs of looking sharp around the net. He earns two break-back points … the first goes begging and then he totally miscues a massive swing at Rublev’s second serve to squander the next one. Rublev sails though deuce for 4-2.

Popyrin has taken the first set 6-1 against Delbonis. That was quick! Almost as rapid is Natalia Vikhlyantseva, who has stormed to a 6-1 opening set lead over Julia Gorges.

Rublev is all over the court at the moment, looking on very good form. He’s just held to love and leads 3-1.

Bencic has broken back against Minella, while Popyrin now leads Delbonis 4-1 in the first set.

Rublev holds his serve to deuce and has control of the first set here – he leads 2-0.

Greg emails: “What price a Williams-Osaka rematch in the final? I’m torn. I really want Serena to reach 24 slams but also feel bad about how Osaka didn’t get to enjoy her victory last year. Thoughts?”

I’d quite like a rematch too – as long as everyone around the court behaves properly, which shouldn’t be too much to ask.

On Court Eight, Alexei Popyrin and Federico Delbonis have already swapped breaks.

An early break for Rublev! Sealed with a whipped double-handed backhand. Tsitsipas seems to be uncomfortable already, waggling his knee about and doing some stretches. Is he for real or just reacting to the loss of serve?

We’ll be most closely following Tsitsipas-Rublev for the next little while, by the way, while still casting eyes around the other courts. If you’re watching – or even at! – one of the other matches then do write in with your thoughts!

Fifteen matches are underway – including this one, as of a moment or two ago! Belinda Bencic, the women’s 15th seed, is a break down already to Mandy Minella.

First up on Louis Armstrong will be Stefanos Tsitsipas against Andrey Rublev – two richly talented 21-year-olds who should serve up a very close first-round tie here. They will be starting pretty soon.

Daniela Hantuchova has just compared Gauff’s on-court movement to that of Martina Hingis. That’s some accolade! Do we agree?

We could do with that, yes. I’m quietly optimistic for her but don’t want to make bold predictions. She’s certainly got a chance of making a big, big impact. Here’s a very relevant piece by Tumaini Carayol:

Kyle Edmund is speaking on the telly:

“I’m feeling excited, had a good week’s training, really enjoyed it and feel like I’ve been progressing nicely. What I’ve got right now is the best I’ve had in a while so it’s just about going and seeing what I’ve got out there on the match court. The conditions here suit me well, the balls fly off, I’ve always enjoyed it. I’m confident in terms of belief in myself in my game but I’m a realist, I haven’t won a huge amount of matches but feel I’ve also done a lot of good stuff.”

He’s not gone past the second round in any of his last four grand slams – let’s hope for a revival here.

Here’s a scene-setter for Osaka’s big return, courtesy of Bryan Armen Graham – who’ll be with you later too:

Yes, Serena was on sizzling form. Good shout on those other games. Coco Gauff will probably be on at around 9pm UK time.

Any thoughts ahead of today’s action? Or based on yesterday’s, for that matter? Send your emails and tweets in to the addresses above. Let’s interact!

And what a day we have in store! Various big guns get underway in the next few hours and they’ll all do well to dish out the kind of hiding Serena Williams handed Maria Sharapova yesterday. Novak Djokovic had a straightforward time of things too, but what of today’s contenders?

At midday local time – 5pm UK time – we’ll see the women’s champion Naomi Osaka take on the Russian, Anna Blinkova. That’s in Arthur Ashe Stadium and the third match there will see Rafael Nadal, a semi-finalist last year, face the experienced Australian John Millman.

Those tussles should bookend the day nicely. We’ll also see Simona Halep against Nicole Gibbs, Sloane Stephens taking on Anna Kalinskaya, Nick Kyrgios playing Steve Johnson and Great Britain’s own Kyle Edmund facing Pablo Andujar. The latter will probably take place around teatime UK time.

That’s just some of it; we’ll dig into the rest very soon. Tuesday’s play starts at 4pm UK time