Top seeds race ahead under Ashe roof while rain stalls early US Open playLast updated: September 03, 2026 | 04:073 MIN READJessica Pegula, of the United States, gestures after she won against Sofia Kenin, of the United States, during the second round of the U.S. Open tennis championships Wednesday, Sept. 2, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)NEW YORK (AP): At a rainy US Open where it's a struggle to even finish the first round, Jessica Pegula was happy to quickly be into the third.The No. 3 seed needed only 56 minutes on Wednesday to defeat Sofia Kenin 6-3, 6-1. Kenin, the 2020 Australian Open champion, beat Venus Williams in her first match.“To be out of there in under an hour, it doesn’t always happen,” Pegula said. “So I think I’m just going to take that one and run, I guess, until the next round.”Some players won't get there for a while. With rain coming down for a second day in New York, play was suspended again for a time on outside courts, allowing only play under the roofs in Arthur Ashe Stadium and Louis Armstrong Stadium to continue uninterrupted.Get it: Fast, verified news for FREE ... download the Gulf News app — simply click here No. 8 seed Ben Shelton followed Pegula on Ashe and beat Hubert Hurkacz 6-3, 5-7, 7-6 (3), 7-5, while No. 7 Daniil Medvedev raced past Sebastian Gorzny — except for a brief delay to protest the chair umpire's decision to replay a point when two birds sat on the net — 6-3, 6-3, 7-5.Defending champions Aryna Sabalenka and Carlos Alcaraz were set to play on Ashe at night. Those are second-round matches, while some players were still playing their first. A three-day first round stretches into a fourth