Samuel claims first Grand Slam win; Norrie exits in first round

Toby Samuel walked onto the court at the US Open as a qualifier, a 23-year-old from Winchester who two years earlier had nearly vanished from professional tennis entirely. On Sunday, he dismantled Tomas Machac, a former world number 20, in just over 90 minutes with a score of 6-2 6-3 6-2. It was his first victory at a Grand Slam tournament, and it arrived with the kind of clinical precision that suggested he belonged there.

The path to this moment had been improbable. In 2024, bone bruising in his right arm had sidelined him for much of the year and sent his ranking plummeting to nearly 2,000th in the world. Most players do not come back from that. Samuel did. He spent 2025 grinding through the ATP Challenger circuit, winning 36 of 39 matches to claw back into the top 300. This year, 2026, he has moved into an entirely different category. He made his Grand Slam debut at the French Open without ever having played a single ATP Tour match beforehand. He reached the semi-finals at Eastbourne. He earned a Wimbledon wildcard. He won his third Challenger title of the year on the hard courts in Winnipeg. And now he sits inside the top 100 of the live ATP rankings, with $140,000 in prize money from this tournament alone—the largest payday of his career.

Against Machac, Samuel was nearly flawless. He dropped just five points across his nine service games, including three successive holds to love as part of a seven-game winning run. He trailed 2-0 in the third set before winning the next six games straight, saving two break points along the way. When it was over, he had earned a second-round meeting with Czech 18th seed Jiri Lehecka. His new ranking would secure automatic qualification for the Australian Open in January, completing a full circuit of all four major tournaments within a single year.

Speaking to BBC Radio 5 Live afterward, Samuel's voice carried the weight of what he had just accomplished. "It means everything to me," he said. "It's what I dreamt of as a kid watching these big tournaments. Being able to win my first Grand Slam match is unbelievable." He acknowledged that he still felt starstruck in the locker room—he had admitted to being overwhelmed by the presence of players like Alexander Zverev at Roland Garros—but he was learning to recalibrate his perspective. "I'm definitely more comfortable being around those top guys because I could be playing them the next day," he said. "I have to start thinking of them not as stars but people I can play against."

Samuel's rise has been shaped partly by the American collegiate system. His parents had encouraged him to pursue a degree at the University of South Carolina, where he won an All American doubles title and grew accustomed to what he described as "super lively" crowds. Arthur Fery, his 2019 Wimbledon boys' doubles partner, had followed a similar path and recently reached the semi-finals at Wimbledon. Several of Samuel's Carolina teammates were in attendance for his first-round win at Flushing Meadows, and he credited their "fighting energy" with helping him secure the victory. His own parents had been present throughout his qualifying matches, though they were in America supporting his brother, who had just started university there. His father planned to return for the second round.

Elsewhere at the US Open, the British contingent faced mixed fortunes. Cameron Norrie, seeded 29th, fell to Frenchman Luca Van Assche in four sets in a performance that left him visibly frustrated. Norrie had fought back from being broken in the opening game to claim the first set in a tie-break, but he managed only seven games across the next three sets. His unforced error count reached 49, more than double his opponent's 21. It marked his third consecutive first-round exit at a Grand Slam. "I felt like I lost to myself today," Norrie said afterward, describing his inability to maintain energy and momentum as both frustrating and surprising. Katie Boulter advanced to the second round with a 6-4 3-6 6-0 victory over American wildcard Carol Young Suh Lee. Jacob Fearnley, competing as a lucky loser after falling in qualifying, was forced to suspend his first-round match against Spain's Martin Landaluce when rain halted play on the outdoor courts around 9pm local time, with Fearnley trailing 4-3 in the first set.