NEW YORK, Sept 2 (Reuters) - ⁠Rafael Jodar was tripped up at the first hurdle of his maiden U.S. ⁠Open campaign on Wednesday, as the Spanish 12th seed failed to find his ‌rhythm and fell 6-2 6-1 6-1 to Chinese lucky loser Bu Yunchaokete.

Back at the site of his junior triumph two years ago, the 19-year-old Jodar looked unusually out of sorts after his first-round clash was delayed by a ​day due to rain, with a flurry of unforced ⁠errors handing Bu the opening set.

Things ⁠looked to be going from bad to worse for Jodar when Bu, the last-minute beneficiary of ⁠a ‌spot in the main draw after Thanasi Kokkinakis withdrew, broke early in the second set and threatened to run away with the contest.

"I'm a really lucky loser," ⁠Bu said.

"After I lost in qualifying, I took a day off ​but I saw a ‌few guys pull out, so I took the decision to come back and tried ⁠to do some ​work in case I could play. Yesterday, they told me I could ... when I heard that, I was super excited."

Jodar, one of the fastest-rising talents in the men's game after going from 362nd in ⁠the world to 13th over the past year, continued ​to struggle for answers and even sent several of his rackets to be re-strung in a bid to change his fortunes.

But it proved futile, with the 24-year-old Bu refusing to loosen his ⁠grip on the contest as he sealed the second set after another unforced error from Jodar to silence a vocal contingent of Spanish supporters on Court 17.

World number 124 Bu completed the upset after an hour-long rain delay, securing his maiden Grand Slam main-draw victory on his ​seventh attempt and setting up a second-round clash with Fabian ⁠Marozsan or Michael Zheng.

"It was a little bit hard with the rain delay," Bu said.

"We just ​had to do our job and stay focused. I'm really ‌happy for that. It may have looked very ​easy, but in my mind and my heart there were lots of emotions. I was very nervous."

(Reporting by Shrivathsa Sridhar in New York, editing by Pritha Sarkar)