Wildcard Teenager Stefanoni Scores Day One Upset At US Open

18-year-old wildcard Marina Stefanoni claimed the biggest upset on day one of the 2021 US Open presented by Truist, when the Stamford-based world No.71 overcame Canada's world No.19 Danielle Letourneau as the PSA World Tour Platinum event made its debut at the brand new, state-of-the-art Arlen Specter Squash Center in Philadelphia.

Stefanoni, a sophomore at Harvard University, looked like she could be on the verge of pulling off a shock win from the outset as she dominated proceedings and she will compete in the second round of a Platinum event for the first time following her 11-6, 11-2, 11-6 triumph.

"I feel quite good after that win," said Stefanoni, who will play Egypt's Nada Abbas next.

"Since coming back from COVID, my game has been a bit off, but it's been steadily improving, so I'm glad it worked out and I'm trying to hit my targets.

"I love playing on glass courts, so to have my match on the glass court today was something special, and I'm hoping I can play on more glass courts in the future. [The Specter Center] is beautiful and the courts play really nicely. I'm really glad the US Open is here this year."

Olivia Fiechter was the other American to win in round one after the US No.3 completed a 11-6, 11-7, 11-8 victory over Egypt's Menna Hamed. Fiechter, who returned to the top 20 following the release of the October PSA World Rankings, will play Australia's Donna Lobban in the last 32.

"It's [the Specter Center] incredible, I think the biggest thing is having the girls and the guys here on Team USA," Fiechter said.

"We've been spread across the country for so long and especially on the women's side we have so many top players. To be able to set that bar and to play practice matches is incredible. Now [Ong] Beng Hee is here, we've just got a strength and conditioning coach, it's all really coming together and it's every professional athlete's dream to have a facility like this."

Elsewhere, Georgina Kennedy progressed to round two of a Platinum event for the first time as the unseeded English player beat the higher-ranked Haley Mendez, while Stefanoni's younger sister, Lucie, bowed out at the hands of Malaysia's Sivasangari Subramaniam.

In the men's event, the top two ranked USA players - Shahjahan Khan and Todd Harrity - saw their tournaments come to an end at the hands of Mexico's Cesar Salazar and Germany's Raphael Kandra, respectively.

Salazar got the better of Khan by an 11-3, 4-11, 11-3, 11-5 margin and will take on Egypt's Youssef Soliman in the next round after Soliman beat India's Mahesh Mangaonkar.

"Today, I'm happy with my performance because Shahjahan is improving a lot," Salazar said.

"He's doing a good job in tournaments. I'm happy with the victory. This is a fantastic place to play squash and is great motivation for players who want to come and play here."

Meanwhile, Harrity came close to causing an upset against Kandra as the world No.44 took the German to a fifth game. Kandra moved through the gears though to wrap up an 4-11, 11-3, 11-5, 7-11, 11-4 victory.

The world No.22 will take on India's Vikram Malhotra for a place in the third round.

"I came here quite prepared and I knew what to expect playing a local player.

"He had a good start and I didn't feel like I got into it at all, so I just let it go at the end because I was too far away. I started to focus on the second game and I got into a flow. He broke through in the fourth game and then it was more of a mental game at the end of the day. I had a little bit more mentally and physically, and I think that made the difference today."

The other two American men in action on day one - wildcards Faraz Khan and Timothy Brownell - also saw their events come to an end following respective defeats to Switzerland's Nicolas Mueller and France's Victor Crouin.