Australian tennis players advance at US Open as Kokkinakis withdraws due to injury

Diminutive Dane Sweeny and qualifier Tristan Schoolkate have stormed into the US Open second round to continue Australia's excellent start to the season's final grand slam.

Sweeny was leading the crafty Corentin Moutet 7-6(4), 6-4, 3-0 when the Frenchman retired injured on Tuesday, local time.

Schoolkate then celebrated like Lleyton Hewitt when he finished off American qualifier Nishesh Basavareddy 7-6 (4), 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 in a tick over three hours.

The 25-year-old Sweeny marked his maiden appearance in the US Open main draw with a first-ever victory at an overseas grand slam.

The wildcard next faces either Italian 13th seed Lorenzo Musetti or rising Brit Arthur Fery for an improbable place in the last 32.

Schoolkate is into round two for a second time and will next play Italian fifth seed Fabio Cobolli, the 2026 French Open runner-up.

Sweeny, who only stands 170 centimetres high, and Schoolkate give Australia at least seven players in round two, joining Taylah Preston, Kim Birrell, Maya Joint, Alexei Popyrin and James Duckworth.

Men's sixth seed Alex de Minaur will have to wait another day to try to follow suit after more rain in New York wiped out the day-three night session.

De Minaur did not even make it onto The Grandstand for his first-round clash with Italian qualifier Andrea Guerrieri.

Injured Kokkinakis withdraws from US Open before hitting a ball

Thanasi Kokkinakis concedes he may have contested his last US Open without even hitting a ball after the cursed star's body failed him once again.

Kokkinakis formally withdrew from the season's last grand slam after being unable to take the court for his scheduled first-round clash with Spanish wonder boy Rafael Jodar because of an ankle sprain.

The Australian suffered his latest injury in Cincinnati two weeks ago and has been racing the clock to be fit for the Open ever since.

He ran out of time and, after a decade battling endless back, shoulder, abdominal, knee and arm injuries, Kokkinakis admits he is losing patience.

"It is a possibility for sure," the 30-year-old told AAP when asked if his US Open career might be over.

"I'm not going to say never. The thing is, I feel like the tennis part, I've still got a lot of good tennis left in me.

"On the limited matches that I've played, I've shown that I'm more than good enough to still compete and then beat some good players.

"But, to be honest, I'm sick of going into tournaments not feeling like I can do it physically and everyone asks me how my body is."

The 30-year-old used — or "wasted" — the fifth of nine injury-protected ranking entries available to him to make the US Open draw.

The one-time Roger Federer slayer now plans on continuing his recovery and trying to be fully fit for the Australian summer.

"I want to go into it being confident in myself and, if I do win, give myself a chance to back up and try and play again," Kokkinakis said.

"That's always the thing. So it's about feeling strong in myself.

"I'll definitely obviously give the next Aussie a crack and see where I'm at after that."