MOSCOW, September 5. /TASS/. Russian tennis player Andrei Rublev has beaten Italy’s Salvatore Caruso in the 3rd round of the US Open, a prestigious Grand Slam tournament offering $53.4 million.

The 22-year-old Russian won in straight sets (6-0, 6-4, 6-0). The two tennis players faced off for the first time in their careers. In the 4th round, Rublev (seed No.10) will square off with the winner in a match between Italy’s Matteo Berrettini (seed No.6) and Norway’s Casper Ruud (seed No.30), who are scheduled to compete later in the day.

Rublev is ranked 14th in the ATP rankings and has won four ATP titles so far. In 2017, Rublev made it to the US Open quarterfinals, his best Grand Slam result to date.

Caruso, 27, is ranked 100th in the ATP rankings and has never won in ATP tournaments.

The 2020 US Open kicked off on Monday in New York and the prestigious Grand Slam tournament offers $53.4 million in prize money up for grabs. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo announced in June that the Grand Slam tournament in the United States, the 2020 US Open, would be hosted by New York in line with the initial schedule, namely between August 31 and September 13, but without spectators in attendance due to the global COVID-19 pandemic.

A number of international tennis players decided earlier against going to New York for the 2020 US Open amid the ongoing global spread of the novel coronavirus and among them were World’s No. 1 female tennis player Ashleigh Barty of Australia, World’s No. 2 male tennis player Rafael Nadal of Spain, Dutch player Kiki Bertens (currently ranked 7th by the WTA), Ukraine’s Elina Svitolina (ranked 5th by the WTA), Swiss tennis star Stan Wawrinka (currently ranked 17th by the ATP), Russia’s Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova and Svetlana Kuznetsova, as well as Romania’s Simona Halep.

The United States is currently the leading country in terms of confirmed novel coronavirus cases.