NEW YORK
The scene was acary: Victoria Azarenka, a 21-year-old on the rise in the WTA rankings, paused about a half-hour into her second-round match yesterday at the U.S. Open, then staggered, stumbled and collapsed to the court.
Azarenka, seeded 10th in the Grand Slam tournament, rolled over to rest her head on her arm, and a trainer rushed over. Someone covered Azarenka's legs with a white towel. She eventually was helped into a wheelchair, her yellow visor askew atop her head, then taken to a hospital, where tests showed she had a mild concussion.
As a record-breaking summer suffocates New York, the temperature in Flushing Meadows headed into the 90s for a third consecutive day, and the mercury topped 100 degrees on court. But tournament referee Brian Early said Azarenka's problem did "not seem to be primarily a heat-related illness."
Azarenka later said she fell in the gym while warming up before the match, banging her head and arm.
"I was checked by the medical team before I went on court and they were courtside for monitoring. I felt worse as the match went on, having a headache and feeling dizzy," said Azarenka, who is from Belarus but lives part of the year in Scottsdale, Ariz.
Azarenka began wobbling early in her match against Gisela Dulko of Argentina, taking extra time between points and wincing occasionally, clearly in distress. Azarenka said she "started having trouble seeing and felt weak."
The match was halted with Azarenka trailing Dulko 5-1.
"It was terrible. It's not nice to see someone feeling bad, not nice to win a match this way. I hope she feels OK now," said Dulko, who walked around the net to check on Azarenka. "I was worried for her."
It was by far the most stunning developing on Day 3 of a tournament that produced some surprising results on the scoreboard, including 18-year-old American qualifier Ryan Harrison's 6-3, 6-7 (4), 6-3, 6-4 victory over 15th-seeded Ivan Ljubicic, and unseeded Michael Llodra's 7-6 (3), 6-4, 6-4 upset of Wimbledon runner-up Tomas Berdych.
Winners included No. 4-seeded Andy Murray, the 2008 runner-up, who said he wore a cap during a match for the first time in four or five years because of the heat; No. 12 Mikhail Youzhny; No. 14 Nicolas Almagro; No. 18 John Isner, best known for his all-sorts-of-records-smashing Wimbledon marathon victory that ended 70-68 in the fifth set; and No. 20 Sam Querrey, who beat Bradley Klahn of Stanford, the NCAA singles champion, 6-3, 4-6, 7-5, 6-4 in an all-America matchup.
At night, defending champion Kim Clijsters reached the third round by beating Sally Peers of Australia, the 201st-ranked qualifier, 6-2, 6-1. They were followed onto the court at Arthur Ashe Stadium by Andy Roddick, the 2003 U.S. Open champion, who took on Janko Tipsarevic in a second-round match.
Harrison is the first U.S. male teen to beat a top-20 opponent at any Grand Slam since Roddick, 19, defeated No. 11 Alex Corretja at the 2001 U.S. Open.
You don't have to go as far back to find a female teen from the United States who pulled off that sort of upset: Melanie Oudin of Marietta, Ga., was 17 a year ago when she reached the U.S. Open quarterfinals by beating two top-20 players.
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