he takes on Britain’s Cameron Norrie in the evening session.
The seventh-seeded Serbian legend is chasing a record 25th Grand Slam singles title in New York, where he has won four times before.
Other men’s seeds in action on Friday include sixth seed Ben Shelton, who faces France’s Adrian Mannarino, and American 17th seed Frances Tiafoe, who takes on Germany’s Jan-Lennard Struff.
In another early game, Czech 20th seed Jiri Lehecka sailed into the next round with a 6-4, 6-4, 6-4 defeat of Belgium’s Raphael Collignon.
In the women’s draw meanwhile, world number one Sabalenka faces Canada’s 31st seed Leylah Fernandez in a night game on the Louis Armstrong Stadium.
Sabalenka is aiming to become the first woman to successfully defend the U.S. Open since Serena Williams won a hat-trick of titles in 2012, 2013 and 2014.
Fernandez reached the final of the U.S. Open in 2021, where she was beaten by Britain’s Emma Raducanu — the only player in history ever to win a Grand Slam singles title after emerging through qualifying.
Raducanu’s hopes of another fairytale run in New York came to a juddering halt on Friday when she was steamrollered in straight sets by Kazakh ninth seed Elena Rybakina, losing 6-1, 6-2.
“I thought Elena played very well, and I found it very difficult to get any sort of rhythm in the match,” Raducanu said of Rybakina, the 2022 Wimbledon champion.
“When these top players are playing really well, it’s difficult,” she added. “The ball just comes through really, really fast, and you feel like you just don’t really have any time, you know, to create anything, so it’s just constant pressure
