In matchup of moms, Serena rallies to beat Pironkova

Serena Williams played her third consecutive three-set match
and eighth in 10 matches since the women's tour resumed.
2018 photo by Mal Taam

   Serena Williams survived another three-set match today to reach the semifinals of the U.S. Open.

   Overcoming a sluggish start, the third-seeded Williams beat unranked Tsvetana Pironkova of Bulgaria 4-6, 6-3, 6-2 in Flushing Meadows, N.Y., in the first major quarterfinal between mothers.

   Pironkova, a Bulgarian who will turn 33 on Sunday, was playing in her first tournament since Wimbledon in 2017 after starting a family.

   Williams, who will turn 39 on Sept. 26, slugged 20 aces, her most in a match in eight years, and committed only one double fault. She twice returned a serve left-handed, winning each point, as she improved to 5-0 against Pironkova in their first meeting in five years.

   It was Williams' third consecutive three-set match and eighth in 10 matches since the women's tour resumed after a five-month hiatus because of the coronavirus pandemic. She turned the match around after losing her serve in the opening game of the second set.

   "I was definitely feeling it a little in my legs," the former world No. 1 said in an on-court interview. "For whatever reason, an hour in, I get more energy. ... In the beginning, I was a little fatigued. Obviously, I can't do that if I want to keep winning, so I'm going to try to figure that out."

   Added ESPN commentator Chris Evert, a six-time U.S. Open champion: "Serena did not play her best, but she got herself out of trouble. She has to raise her level if she wants to win this tournament."

   Williams is 0-8 in attempts to tie Margaret Court's record of 24 Grand Slam singles crowns since her daughter, Olympia, was born on Sept. 1, 2017. Williams won the last of her six U.S. Open singles titles in 2014, losing the last two finals to upstarts Naomi Osaka and Bianca Andreescu. 

   Williams — the champion of the now-defunct Bank of the West Classic at Stanford in 2011, 2012 and 2014 —  is scheduled to play unseeded Victoria Azarenka on Thursday after the first semifinal between the fourth-seeded Osaka and 28th-seeded Jennifer Brady (4 p.m. PDT on ESPN).

   Azarenka, a 31-year-old mother, demolished 16th-seeded Elise Mertens of Belgium 6-1, 6-0 in 73 minutes to extend her winning streak to 11 matches, including a walkover against Osaka in the final of the Western & Southern Open in Flushing Meadows, after going 0-3 since August 2019. She won the Bank of the West Classic 10 years ago and ascended to No. 1 in 2012 after winning the first of her two consecutive Australian Open crowns.

   Mertens, a semifinalist in the Australian Open and inaugural Mubadala Silicon Valley Classic in San Jose, Calif., in 2018, had not lost a set in four tournament matches. She was coming off a 6-3, 6-3 victory over second-seeded Sofia Kenin, the reigning Australian Open champion.

   Williams leads Azarenka 18-4 overall and 10-0 in majors, including three-set victories in the 2012 and 2013 U.S. Open finals, in the head-to-head series. 

   In the first all-Russian men's quarterfinal in a major, third-seeded Daniil Medvedev downed 10th-seeded Andrey Rublev 7-6 (6), 6-3, 7-6 (5). The volatile Rublev led 5-1 and 6-3 in the first-set tiebreaker. 

   Medvedev, a 6-foot-6 (1.98-meter) right-hander, took a medical timeout at 4-5 in the third set for apparent cramps in his legs and for treatment on his right arm.

   The 24-year-old Medvedev, last year's runner-up to Rafael Nadal in a five-set epic, has not lost a set in this year's tournament.

   Rublev, 22, was playing in his second U.S. Open quarterfinal. He reached the last eight at Flushing Meadows in 2017 before missing three months in 2018 with a lower-back stress fracture and six weeks in 2019 with a wrist injury.

   Medvedev will face second-seeded Dominic Thiem, 27, of Austria on Friday. Thiem, a three-time Grand Slam runner-up, dismantled 21st-seeded Alex de Minaur of Australia 6-1, 6-2, 6-4. De Minaur, 21, was playing in his first major quarterfinal.

   Thiem is 2-1 against Medvedev, but the Russian won the last meeting 6-3, 6-1 in the Montreal quarterfinals last year on a hardcourt. 

In her first event in 3 years, Pironkova stuns Muguruza

Garbine Muguruza has played in the final of every Grand Slam tournament
except the U.S. Open. The former world No. 1 has never reached the quarter-
finals in Flushing Meadows. 2017 photo by Mal Taam

   Tsvetana Pironkova wanted to see if she still had it.

   Apparently, she does.

   Playing in her first tournament since Wimbledon in 2017, the unranked Pironkova shocked 10th-seeded Garbine Muguruza, a two-time Grand Slam singles champion, 7-5, 6-3 today in the second round of the U.S. Open in Flushing Meadows, N.Y.

   Pironkova, who climbed to a career-high No. 31 shortly after reaching the Wimbledon semifinals 10 years ago, missed the competition after leaving to start a family. She took advantage of a new WTA rule allowing new mothers to play 12 tournaments, including two Grand Slams, with their ranking when they stopped competing.

   "I was really curious what my level is at the moment," the 32-year-old Bulgarian said after dismissing Liudmila Samsonova of Russia 6-2, 6-3 on Tuesday in the first round. "I was really curious to see if my preparation was adequate and could yield good results. I'm happy to see I did the right things. I wanted to see if I still have it."

   Muguruza has played in the final of the three other Grand Slam tournaments, winning Wimbledon and the French Open, but the former world No. 1 has never advanced to the U.S. Open quarterfinals. In the now-defunct Bank of the West Classic at Stanford, she reached the semifinals in 2017 and quarterfinals in 2014 and won the doubles title in 2014 with fellow Spaniard Carla Suarez Navarro. 

   Suarez Navarro, Muguruza's close friend who turned 32 today, revealed Tuesday that she has Hodgkin lymphoma. 

   Pironkova next will meet 18th-seeded Donna Vekic of Croatia. Vekic advanced to the semifinals of the Mubadala Silicon Valley Classic in San Jose, Calif., and quarterfinals of the U.S. Open last summer.

   Later today in the Battle of Belarus, Victoria Azarenka extended her winning streak to eight matches with a 6-1, 6-3 victory over fifth-seeded Aryna Sabalenka in 67 minutes.

   The resurgent Azarenka, another former No. 1, won last week's Western & Southern Open in Flushing Meadows when Naomi Osaka withdrew from the final because of a hamstring injury.

   Azarenka, a 31-year-old mother, won the Bank of the West Classic 10 years ago and reached the U.S. Open final in 2012 and 2013, falling to Williams each time.

   Sabalenka last year advanced to the San Jose final, losing to China's Zheng Saisai, and won the U.S. Open doubles title with Elise Mertens of Belgium.

   Sorana Cirstea of Romania surprised ninth-seeded Johanna Konta, who won the first of her three WTA singles titles at Stanford in 2016.

   No. 26 seed Sloane Stephens, the 2017 U.S. Open champion, outclassed Olga Govortsova of Belarus 6-2, 6-2 in 66 minutes. 

   Stephens, a 27-year-old Fresno, Calif., product now based in Florida, has not lost more than three games in a set in her two matches this week. She was 1-7 this year entering the U.S. Open.

   Stephens will face third-seeded Serena Williams, who won the last of her six U.S. Open titles in 2014, on Saturday. Williams, a part-time Silicon Valley resident who will turn 39 on Sept. 26, beat Margarita Gasparyan of Russia 6-2, 6-4 in the first featured night match. 

   Williams is 5-1 against Stephens, but they have not met in five years. Stephens' victory came in the quarterfinals of the 2013 Australian Open at age 19.

   In the men's draw, Vasek Pospisil eliminated 25th-seeded Milos Raonic, the Wimbledon runner-up to Andy Murray in 2016, 6-7 (1), 6-3, 7-6 (4), 6-3 in a matchup of injury-plagued Canadians. The 6-foot-5 (1.96-meter) Raonic hammered 29 aces, and the 6-foot-4 Pospisil had 20. 

   Pospisil, ranked No. 94 after reaching a career-high No. 25 in 2014, had back surgery in January 2019 and missed the first six months of the season. He reached the final of the $100,000 San Francisco Challenger in 2017, losing to China's Ze Zhang.

   Raonic won three of his eight career ATP singles titles in the now-defunct SAP Open in San Jose. He never lost a set in the tournament, winning the last three titles (2011, 2012 and 2013).

   In the second featured night match, 15th-seeded Felix Auger-Aliassime of Canada dominated 33-year-old Andy Murray, who won the first of his three Grand Slam singles titles in the 2012 U.S. Open, 6-2, 6-3, 6-4.

   Murray, who had right hip surgery in January 2018 and January 2019, was coming off a stirring five-set victory over Yoshihito Nishioka of Japan on Tuesday. Murray prevailed in 4 hours, 39 minutes, overcoming a two-sets-to-none deficit and saving a match point.

   Murray also never lost in the SAP Open, winning the first of his 46 singles titles in San Jose in 2006 at age 18 and repeated the following year.

French Open Day 10 highlights: Radwanska, Halep upset

Second-seeded Agnieszka Radwanska lost to unseeded
Tsvetana Pironkova in the fourth round, then blasted
tournament organizers. 2015 photo by Mal Taam/
www.malt.photo

   Five highlights from Day 10 of the soggy French Open in Paris:
   1. Unseeded Tsvetana Pironkova of Bulgaria stunned No. 2 seed Agnieszka Radwanska 2-6, 6-3, 6-3 in the completion of a suspended match to reach her first French Open quarterfinal.
   Radwanska led 6-2, 3-0 when play was halted on Sunday night but had trouble controlling the heavy, waterlogged balls in the drizzle.
   Radwanska, who had surgery on the middle finger of her right (playing) hand at the end of 2009, said she "couldn't really play in that conditions, end of story."
   But Radwanska, the Wimbledon runner-up to Serena Williams in 2012, proceeded to blast tournament organizers.
   "I'm just so surprised and angry that we have to play in the rain," hissed Radwanska, 27, of Poland. "I mean, it's not a $10,000 tournament; it's a Grand Slam. How can you allow players to play in the rain?"
   Pironkova, 28, reached the Wimbledon semifinals in 2010 and quarterfinals in 2011.
   For the first time since such records began in 1983, two women ranked below No. 100 have advanced to the French Open quarterfinals. Pironkova is No. 102, and Shelby Rogers, a 23-year-old American, is No. 108. Their career highs are No. 31 and No. 70, respectively.

Sixth-seeded Simona Halep also was irate after losing
to 21st-seeded Samantha Stosur. 2014 photo
by Paul Bauman

   2. In the completion of a suspended match between former French Open runners-up, No. 21 seed Samantha Stosur of Australia ousted No. 6 Simona Halep of Romania 7-6 (0), 6-3 to reach her first Grand Slam quarterfinal since the 2012 U.S. Open.
   Halep, who led 5-3 when play was stopped on Sunday night, also was irate about having to play in the drizzle.
   "I have no words," she fumed. "It was impossible to play, in my opinion, and to play tennis matches in the rain I think is a bit too much. But everyone was in the same situation, and who was stronger won today."
   The 32-year-old Stosur, who won the 2011 U.S. Open, lost to Halep 6-2, 6-0 in 51 minutes three weeks ago in the Madrid semifinals.  
   3. A Serena Williams-Garbine Muguruza final looks increasingly likely. The quarterfinals in the bottom half of the draw are set: No. 4 Muguruza vs. the unseeded Rogers, and Stosur vs. Pironkova. Those matches, as well as the fourth round in the top half, are scheduled for Wednesday. The highest remaining seed in the top half after No. 1 Williams is No. 8 Timea Bacsinszky, a surprise semifinalist last year.
   Williams, 34, is 3-1 against Muguruza, 22, but in their only meeting on clay, Muguruza dominated 6-2, 6-2 in the second round of the 2014 French Open.
   4. After rain wiped out play for the first time in 16 years on Monday at Roland Garros, only a handful of matches were completed today, and light rain is forecast through Friday morning. Saturday's women's final and Sunday's men's final could be pushed back a day or more.
   5. No. 1 seed Novak Djokovic leads No. 14 Roberto Bautista Agut of Spain 3-6, 6-4, 4-1 in a fourth-round match halted by rain. Djokovic, 29, is attempting to become the eighth man to earn a career Grand Slam in singles.

Northern California result

Boys singles

First round

   Patrik Rikl, Czech Republic, def. Sam Riffice, Roseville, Calif., 7-5, 3-6, 6-1.