diff --git a/io_scene_x3d/import_x3d.py b/io_scene_x3d/import_x3d.py
index 480bb787..78416395 100644
--- a/io_scene_x3d/import_x3d.py
+++ b/io_scene_x3d/import_x3d.py
@@ -1256,7 +1256,7 @@ def gzipOpen(path):
 
     if data is None:
         try:
-            filehandle = open(path, 'rU', encoding='utf-8', errors='surrogateescape')
+            filehandle = open(path, 'r', encoding='utf-8', errors='surrogateescape')
             data = filehandle.read()
             filehandle.close()
         except: