Noah Rubin is going to school much sooner than he had hoped.
The 18-year old from Rockville Centre, NY, who qualified for the US Open as a wild card, was eliminated in straight sets 6-4, 6-3, 6-0 to Federico Delbonis in just over an hour and a half on Tuesday. Now, it’s off to Wake Forest for the start of his freshman year.
“Now I’m going to school, going to college to get in the best physical condition and to mature as a person and a tennis player,” said Rubin, who will actually wait until he and Stefan Kozlov are eliminated from the men’s doubles draw before heading south.
Rubin, ranked 585th in the world, already has missed one week of classes and said his class schedule this semester includes art history, astronomy, writing and intro to Judaism.
Rubin, who won the juniors tournament at Wimbledon in July, said he’s now ready to turn his attention on preparing to turn pro.
“I’m just getting used to the atmosphere [at the US Open], getting used to being out there with the top players in the world,” he said. “It’s nice to know that I belong here and I’m not just taking a vacation here.”
Rubin, who said he has been attending the Open in Flushing for as long as he can remember, wasn’t sure how many people he knew in the crowd of several hundred on Court 13.
“Too many,” he said. “But nothing is going to change whether it’s one person or a thousand people I know.”
If he has it his way, he’ll be playing on tour soon and in many a future US Open.
“I definitely need improvements to get to that level,” he said. “But, you know, we’ll see where I can be in a couple of years.”
Rising young American Jack Sock suffered an early disappointment when he forced to retire from his first-round match — down a set at 6-4, 3-6, 6-1 —in his opener to Spaniard Pablo Andujar.
It was especially galling for Sock, who had reached the third round in Flushing the last two years. He had enjoyed a solid summer, showing growth as a player and rising to a career-best No. 55 in the world.
“Yeah, there was a ball like late in the second set where I slid out like I usually do and just felt a little strain in my calf, outside of my right calf,’’ Sock said. “Just hindered my play and I wasn’t able to go 100 percent, so decided to stop. … It sucks, because obviously my favorite tournament of the year and I wasn’t able to finish the match.”
Alison Riske made it to the second week of the Open last year. She lasted all of 65 minutes in 2014 in a 6-3, 6-0 loss to No. 8 Ana Ivanovic at Arthur Ashe Stadium.
Riske, the 24-year-old from Pittsburgh, was one of the stories of the tournament in 2013, making the fourth round as a wild card.
Last year, each win brought dozens more media to her matches and press conferences. Tuesday, Riske was surrounded by just three reporters after the loss.
“You never know what [the media] is going to be like from tournament to tournament. I was surprised I had any requests [Tuesday] since I lost,” she said.
Christina McHale of Englewood Cliffs, N.J., beat Chanelle Scheepers, 6-2, 1-6, 7-6 (5). … 2011 champ Samantha Stosur won her first match, 6-1, 6-4 over American Lauren Davis. Stosur was upset in the first round last year.