Just a few miles away from the bright lights of Broadway both Katharina Kruger and Takuya Miki took their moment in the Grand Slam spotlight on an opening day at the US Open that proved to be memorable for so many reasons.

Both having had an opportunity to play at least one major before, but making their US Open debuts at Flushing Meadows this year, they played their way to their first Slam singles wins in style.

And the competitive level of their matches proved just why now was the perfect time for a Grand Slam to take the step to extend the men’s and women’s open draws to 16 players.

“It’s great. It’s been a really good thing for the sport because it’s shown and it’s given us the chance to show that it’s not only the top seven or eight players in the world in wheelchair tennis who can play tennis,” Kruger said.

“It also gives chances for upsets happening. Because players outside the top eight have shown at other tournaments on tour that they can beat the big guys and now they have the opportunity to do that here at a Grand Slam where there are so many more people watching.”

"I was so nervous, I was serving for my first Grand Slam singles win"

Whilst Kruger’s 6-2 7-5 victory over Pauline Deroulede wasn’t necessarily one of those upsets to which she refers, it was a chance for the German No. 1 to even up the score a little.

Back in June in L’ile de Re, after a tense third set tie-break, it was Deroulede who had taken the spoils. 

But today, after two double faults left her 0-30 down while serving for the match, she kept her cool and found her momentum again at just the right moment, not even letting her French opponent take the match into a third set let alone a match-deciding tie-break.

“I was so nervous, I was serving for my first Grand Slam singles win, and that’s never an easy thing to do” Kruger said. “I really didn’t want to get into another tie-break situation against her.

“So at 0-30 down I just thought to myself if I can just get a good curve on the ball - get it in but make sure she [Deroulede] doesn’t get a free swing on it - then I could still have a chance to take it back to 15-30, 30-all.

“I just tried to think about it one point at a time in that moment and that was the key.”

"New York is a place that makes me feel positive"

A few courts down from Kruger another player was also on their way to clocking up their first singles win at a major.

Miki, whose only other appearance at a Grand Slam before this one has been Roland Garros in 2014, was engaged in an impressive on court battle with third seed Gustavo Fernandez.

Having never beaten his Argentinian opponent before at any tour level event it was a tough opening round draw for the world No.10 from Japan.

However, with an impressive 49 winners to Fernandez's 39 over the course of the match, Miki didn't shy away and brought his best attacking tennis to this head to head, making it clear from the outset that he was not going to be throwing away his shot when chances to get ahead came his way in the match.

And after just under two hours on court, Miki came out on top against Fernandez 6-3 7-6(2) in a match that had those watching on the edge of their seats, especially during what turned out to be a closely contested second set, adding his first career win over Fernandez to his first Slam singles victory in the process - something he always believed could be possible if he played his game.

"New York is a place that makes me feel positive, and that’s one reason why I beat him today, I felt positive out on court,” Miki said.

“Last night I was thinking about this match and was trying to map myself a way to victory against him and I thought yeah I can do this if I just do these things - and yeah that’s exactly what I did.

“Many years ago when I did my first Grand Slam in Roland Garros I felt so proud of myself when I went there and here it’s the same atmosphere so I had the same proud feeling here as I did there, and that’s another reason why I could do what I did today.”