Thea Frodin spent six months on a film set five years ago as the body double for Demi Singleton, who played a young Serena Williams in the 2021 sports biopic King Richard. On Tuesday at Flushing Meadows, the 17-year-old was no longer playing Serena. She was playing herself, on the biggest tennis stage of her life, facing Elena Rybakina at the US Open.Hollywood was replaced by the hard reality of Grand Slam grind, and Rybakina, the No. 2 seed and Australian Open champion, was in no mood for a fairy tale. She moved into the second round with a convincing 6-3, 6-2 win, showing no lingering effects of the left-foot injury that had threatened to derail her pursuit of the No. 1 ranking.“Right now I feel okay, we’ll see how it goes day by day. How I will wake up tomorrow, since it was the first match I played after the injury,” Rybakina said.“After I got injured (in Cincinnati), it was while I was serving (that I felt the pain). I realized I could not push from the (left) leg. It was impossible to continue the match,” she explained.“We started my recovery from there. We didn’t know if I’m going to be able to play here or not. I did not play for a full week, not too much gym movement-wise either. It’s a great result after 10 days from that kind of injury.”The Kazakh clinched all nine of her service games, saving both breakpoints she faced.The 27-year-old learnt from her team, who had been scrambling for information on her opponent before the match, that the teenager had been the body double for the actor who played a younger Williams.“I didn’t see movie,” Rybakina said of King Richard, “but I think it’s a cool experience, definitely.”Frodin is one of seven teenagers contesting this year’s main draw, alongside Kristina Liutova, Lilli Tagger, Iva Jovic, Alina Korneeva, Mirra Andreeva and Tereza Valentova. The American, who won the USTA Billie Jean King Girls’ 18s National Championships to earn a wild card, will also play the junior event here in the second week.Born and raised in southern California, her father, Mathias, is Swedish and her mother was born in France and grew up in Gabon in central Africa.The 17-year-old, who at 6 ft enjoys a towering presence, has a big game, serve and forehand.Frodin, however, has never met Serena Williams.When asked if the 44-year-old American, who is in the midst of a comeback to tournament play this summer, had reached out to her after the biographical drama for which Will Smith won an Oscar for his portrayal of Richard Williams, she smiled.“Not yet,” she said, “but hopefully soon. I mean there was obviously a lot of other things happening in that movie, I’m sure she was caught up with that.”Frodin sent down 11 aces in the match, doing enough in the 74-minute encounter to show that she’s a player worth watching out for.“She has great shots, especially serve. It’s just a matter of experience, be more stable, play more matches,” Rybakina said. “She can be quite dangerous with these kind of shots. When I was watching a little bit how she played before the match, it was not easy to understand. So I knew the first round can be challenging. She has great potential and great game.”Meanwhile, Indian-American Nishesh Basavareddy went down to Aussie Tristan Schoolkate in a battle of qualifiers falling 6-7 (4), 6-3, 3-6, 4-6 in just over three-hours on a rain-hit day at Flushing Meadows when play on the outside courts started four hours after the scheduled 11 am start.