Tommy Paul takes his time in closing out match

It took Tommy Paul two hours between his first match point and his second to close out a nail-biting win into the US Open third round which lasted past the midnight hour and into Friday.

The junior finalist a decade ago at Flushing Meadows took his time – and not by choice – in finally eliminating unseeded Nuno Borges, 7-6 (6), 6-3, 5-7, 5-7, 7-5. He missed a pair of match points leading 5-4 in the third which would have resulted in a straight-sets success

The 14th seed admitted he made life more difficult for himself but was relieved to go through: “I’m a little bit tired right now,’’ he admitted.

Paul lost here a decade ago in the junior final to longtime and still current rival Taylor Fritz.

Paul’s two third-set match point chances came and went as Portugal’s Borges took the contest into a fourth set, with Paul finally getting the job done as he won the eventual five-setter.

The 14th seed finally found an edge with a break in the final set for a 3-0 lead which paved the way for victory after four and a half hours.

“It was pretty tough today, especially when you are up two sets to love,’’ Paul said. “You never want to lose a match like that. It was definitely cool to get the win.’’

Paul came to his home major with little preparation following a foot injury at Wimbledon and just one entry at the pre-Open Cincinnati event.

He now faces another tough test as he faces on-form Alexander Bublik, winner of three summer titles..

The hard times on court continued for Stefanos Tsitsipas, the No. 28 who once stood in the ranking top 10.

The Greek who is again controversially coached by his father after the pair split last August, was taken down by Daniel Altmaier,with the German saving a match point in the fifth set before solidifying a 7-6(5), 1-6, 4-6, 6-3, 7-5 win with 15 aces..

New York is the only major where Tsitsipas has failed to reach the round of 16.

Altmaier will now line up against Australian eighth seed Alex de Minaur, who beat Japanese qualifier Shintaro Mochizuki 6-2, 6-4, 6-2.

In the women’s draw, third seed Coco Gauff managed her emotions to move into the third round 7-6 (5), 6-2 over Donna Vekic.

The American had to re-group after a tense opening set where she somehow felt overwhelmed after serving seven double-faults and losing serve four times.

“I was just trying to tell myself to breathe, I don’t remember a lot of the end of the first set, to be honest,” Gauff said.

“It’s kind of amazing that I was able to get out of that one. But once I was able to reset, I went to the bathroom and splashed some water on my face. 

“After that I felt a lot better out here,” she said after escaping through breaks of Vekic while the Croat was serving for the set.

The seed was a different player when she returned to the court, holding onto her serve all the way to the narrow win.

Wimbledon finalist Amanda Anisimova booked the third round here for the first time in five years, defeating Maya Joint  7-6 (2), 6-2.