Nadal quits match; del Potro, Djokovic reach final

Rafael Nadal, playing at Indian Wells last year, retired with right knee
tendinitis with Juan Martin del Potro leading 7-6 (3), 6-2 today in the
U.S. Open semifinals. Photo by Mal Taam

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   If anyone deserves a break, it's Juan Martin del Potro.
   The No. 3 seed got one today when No. 1 and defending champion Rafael Nadal retired with right knee tendinitis with del Potro leading 7-6 (3), 6-2 in the U.S. Open semifinals in Flushing Meadows, N.Y.
   Nadal, a three-time U.S. Open champion, was coming off three consecutive tough matches in oppressive heat and humidity. However, he had two days to rest after the last one.
   Nadal subdued No. 27 seed Karen Khachanov of Russia in 4 hours, 23 minutes in the third round, Nikoloz Basilashvili of Georgia in 3 hours, 19 minutes in the fourth round and No. 9 seed Dominic Thiem of Austria in 4 hours, 49 minutes in the quarterfinals. The latter match ended at 2:04 a.m. EDT Wednesday.
   Nadal also retired from his Australian Open quarterfinal against Marin Cilic in January with a right leg injury.
   Del Potro, a 6-foot-6 (1.98-meter) right-hander with a two-handed backhand, stunned Nadal and Roger Federer to win the 2009 U.S. Open but had surgery on his right wrist in 2010 and three operations on his left wrist in 2014-15.
   "It's been horrible for me," del Potro, who considered retirement, lamented in 2015. "One doctor would say something to me; another would say something different. It was difficult to believe one or the other."
   Del Potro, who will turn 30 on Sept. 23, will face No. 6 seed Novak Djokovic on Sunday at 1 p.m. PDT (ESPN). Djokovic, a two-time U.S. Open champion and five-time runner-up, dominated Kei Nishikori, the 2014 runner-up at Flushing Meadows, 6-3, 6-4, 6-2.
   Djokovic is 14-4 against Del Potro with a three-match winning streak and six victories in their last seven matches.
   Women's singles -- No. 17 seed Serena Williams, who has a residence in Silicon Valley, will try to tie Margaret Court's record of 24 Grand Slam singles titles when she meets No. 20 Naomi Osaka, 20, of Japan on Saturday at 1 p.m. (ESPN).
   Osaka, who will play in her first major final, defeated Williams 6-3, 6-2 in the first round at Miami in March in their only previous meeting. It was Williams' second tournament since giving birth to her first child on Sept. 1, 2017, and enduring life-threatening complications.
   Men's doubles -- Mike Bryan (Stanford, 1997-98) won his 18th Grand Slam men's doubles title, breaking the record he shared with John Newcombe.
   No. 3 seeds Bryan and Jack Sock of the United States outclassed No. 7 Lukasz Kubot of Poland and Marcelo Melo of Brazil 6-3, 6-1 in 74 minutes for the crown in a matchup of the last two Wimbledon championship teams.
   Bryan, 40, and Sock claimed their second consecutive Grand Slam title. Bryan's twin brother, Bob, underwent hip surgery on Aug. 2.
   Boys singles -- Unseeded Jenson Brooksby, 17, of Carmichael in the Sacramento area beat 14th-seeded Brandon Nakashima of San Diego 6-4, 7-5 in the quarterfinals.
   Brooksby also defeated Nakashima 6-4, 6-3, 6-1 to win last month's USTA Boys 18 National Championships in Kalamazoo, Mich, and 6-2, 6-3 in the quarterfinals of the Easter Bowl at Indian Wells in March en route to the title.
   Brooksby, who plans to enroll at Texas Christian in the fall of 2019 or in January 2020, is scheduled to play unseeded Lorenzo Musetti of Italy on Saturday. Musetti dismantled Daniel Michalski of Poland 6-4, 6-0.

Serena, Osaka advance to U.S. Open final

Serena Williams, playing in the Mubadala Silicon Valley Classic in San Jose
on July 31, reached her first U.S. Open final in four years. Photo by Mal Taam

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   For all her success, Serena Williams hasn't played in the final of her national tournament in four years.
   That drought will end Saturday, thanks to the 17th-seeded Williams' 6-3, 6-0 victory over 19th-seeded Anastasija Sevastova of Latvia in 66 minutes today.
   Williams lost in the U.S. Open semifinals in 2015, to 43rd-ranked Roberta Vinci, and in 2016, to Karolina Pliskova, and missed last year's tournament while having her first child.
   Williams was plagued by nerves against Vinci while trying to complete the first calendar-year Grand Slam since 1988 and by a knee injury against Pliskova.
   Williams, a part-time resident of Silicon Valley who will turn 37 on Sept. 26, will face 20th-seeded Naomi Osaka, 20, of Japan in an attempt to tie Margaret Court's record of 24 Grand Slam singles titles.
   The hard-hitting Osaka beat 14th-seeded Madison Keys, last year's runner-up at Flushing Meadows, 6-2, 6-4 to become the first woman representing Japan to reach a Grand Slam singles final in the Open era, which began in 1968.
   Osaka was born in Japan to a Japanese mother and Haitian father and lives in Boca Raton, Fla. She is coached by Williams' former hitting partner, Sascha Bajin.
   Osaka defeated Williams 6-3, 6-2 in the first round at Miami in March in their only previous meeting. It was the second tournament of Williams' comeback.
   Williams won the Bank of the West Classic at Stanford three times (2011, 2012 and 2014) and Keys once (2017). Also, Osaka's first big win came in the 2014 tournament, which moved to San Jose this year under a new sponsor, Mubadala.
   As a 16-year-old qualifier playing her first main-draw match on the WTA tour, Osaka ousted 2011 U.S. Open champion Samantha Stosur 4-6, 7-6 (7), 7-5 in the opening round at Stanford. Osaka saved a match point in the tiebreaker and overcame a 3-5 deficit in the third set. She then fell to No. 8 seed Andrea Petkovic.
   Men's singles -- No. 1 seed Rafael Nadal will face No. 3 Juan Martin del Potro in Friday's first semifinal at 1 p.m. PDT (ESPN), followed by No. 6 Novak Djokovic versus No. 21 Kei Nishikori.
   Nadal won his third U.S. Open title last year. Del Potro has rebounded from four wrist operations since stunning Roger Federer for the 2009 crown.
   Nadal, 32, is 11-5 against del Potro, who will turn 30 on Sept. 23. In their last meeting, Nadal prevailed 6-5, 6-7 (7), 4-6, 6-4, 6-4 in 4 hours, 28 minutes in the Wimbledon quarterfinals in July.
   Djokovic has won two U.S. Open titles (2011 and 2015) and reached the final five other times (2007, 2010, 2012, 2013 and 2016). Nishikori advanced to the 2014 final at Flushing Meadows, losing to Marin Cilic 6-3, 6-3, 6-3.
   Djokovic, 31, is 14-2 against Nishikori, 28, with a 13-match winning streak.
   Men's doubles -- No. 3 seeds Mike Bryan (Stanford, 1997-98) and Jack Sock of the United States topped No. 5 Juan Sebastian Cabal and Robert Farah of Colombia 6-2, 6-7 (1), 6-4 to reach the final.
   Bryan and Sock will meet No. 7 seeds Lukasz Kubot of Poland and Marcelo Melo of Brazil on Friday at 9 a.m. (ESPN2) in a matchup of the last two Wimbledon championship teams.
   Kubot and Melo, last year's Wimbledon titlists, beat unseeded Radu Albot of Moldova and Malek Jaziri of Tunisia 7-6 (3), 3-6, 6-3.
   Women's doubles -- No. 13 seeds Ashleigh Barty of Australia and CoCo Vandeweghe of Rancho Santa Fe in the San Diego region knocked off No. 1 seeds Barbora Krejcikova and Katerina Siniakova of the Czech Republic 6-4, 7-6 (6) in the semifinals.
   Krejcikova and Siniakova were seeking their third consecutive Grand Slam title.
   Barty and Vandeweghe, a two-time singles runner-up in the Bank of the West Classic (2012 and 2017), will take on No. 2 seeds Timea Babos of Hungary and Kristina Mladenovic of France.
   Babos and Mladenovic, this year's Australian Open champions and the 2014 Wimbledon runners-up, beat unseeded Stosur of Australia and Zhang Shuai of China 6-4, 7-6 (4).
   Boys singles -- Jenson Brooksby, 17, of Carmichael in the Sacramento area eliminated Henry Von Der Schulenburg of Switzerland 7-5, 6-2 in a third-round clash of unseeded players.
   Brooksby is scheduled to play No. 14 seed Brandon Nakashima, a San Diego resident who routed No. 3 seed Hugo Gaston of France 6-1, 6-2, in Friday's quarterfinals.
   Brooksby defeated Nakashima 6-4, 6-3, 6-1 to win last month's USTA Boys 18 National Championships in Kalamazoo, Mich., and 6-2, 6-3 in the quarterfinals of the Easter Bowl in Indian Wells in March en route to the title.

Keys, Osaka gain U.S. Open semis; Nishikori tops Cilic

Madison Keys poses with a stuffed grizzly bear after
winning last year's Bank of the West Classic at Stan-
ford. Grizzly bears are the state animal of California.
Photo by Mal Taam 

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   All four women who played today in the U.S. Open quarterfinals made splashes in the Bank of the West Classic at Stanford.
   No. 14 seed Madison Keys of Boca Raton, Fla., beat No. 30 Carla Suarez Navarro of Spain 6-4, 6-3 on another sultry day in Flushing Meadows, N.Y., after No. 20 Naomi Osaka of Japan overwhelmed lethargic Lesia Tsurenko of Ukraine 6-1, 6-1 in 57 minutes. Tsurenko told reporters afterward that she woke up today with a viral illness.
   Osaka, 20, became the youngest U.S. Open semifinalist since Caroline Wozniacki in 2010 and the first Japanese woman to reach a Grand Slam semifinal since Kimiko Date lost to Steffi Graf in three sets at Wimbledon in 1996.
   Keys won the last singles title in the Bank of the West Classic in 2017, and Suarez Navarro teamed with compatriot Garbine Muguruza to earn the 2014 doubles crown at Stanford.
   Osaka's first big win came four years ago in the Bank of the West Classic. As a 16-year-old qualifier playing her first main-draw match on the WTA tour, she ousted 2011 U.S. Open champion Samantha Stosur 4-6, 7-6 (7), 7-5 in the opening round. Osaka saved a match point in the tiebreaker and overcame a 3-5 deficit in the third set. She then fell to No. 8 seed Andrea Petkovic.
   Tsurenko lost to Keys in the Stanford quarterfinals last year. The tournament moved to nearby San Jose under a new sponsor, Mubadala, this year.
   In Thursday's first semifinal (4 p.m. PDT on ESPN), No. 17 Serena Williams will meet No. 19 Anastasija Sevastova of Latvia for the first time. Then Keys, who was routed by close friend Sloane Stephens in last year's U.S. Open final, will face Osaka.
   Keys is 3-0 against Osaka, including a 7-5, 4-6, 7-6 (3) victory in the third round of the 2016 U.S. Open in their initial meeting.
   Williams, who has a residence in Silicon Valley, won the last of her six U.S. Open singles crowns four years ago. The three-time Bank of the West singles champion (2011, 2012 and 2014) can tie Margaret Court's record of 24 Grand Slam singles titles. 
   In a men's quarterfinal today, No. 21 seed Kei Nishikori of Japan outlasted No. 7 Marin Cilic of Croatia 2-6, 6-4, 7-6 (5), 4-6, 6-4 in 4 hours, 8 minutes. Nishikori, who trailed 2-4 in the second set, avenged a 6-3, 6-3, 6-3 loss to Cilic in the 2014 U.S. Open final.
   Nishikori will take on No. 6 Novak Djokovic, a two-time U.S. Open champion, on Friday. Djokovic eliminated unseeded John Millman of Australia 6-3, 6-4, 6-4.
   Millman, who has won two Northern California Challengers (Sacramento in 2010 and Aptos in 2015) and reached the final of another (Tiburon in 2014), was coming off a stunning victory over Roger Federer.
   Djokovic, 31, is 14-2 against Nishikori, 28, with a 13-match winning streak.

Naomi Osaka recorded her first big win as a 16-year-old
qualifier in the 2014 Bank of the West Classic at Stanford.
2014 photo by Paul Bauman

   Also Friday, No. 1 seed Rafael Nadal, the defending and three-time champion, will face No. 3 Juan Martin del Potro, who upset Federer for the 2009 U.S. Open title.
   Nadal, 32, is 11-5 against del Potro, who will turn 30 on Sept. 23. In their last meeting, Nadal prevailed 7-5, 6-7 (7), 4-6, 6-4, 6-4 in 4 hours, 28 minutes in the Wimbledon quarterfinals in July.
   Del Potro and Nishikori played in the now-defunct SAP Open in San Jose. Del Potro reached the quarterfinals as the second seed in 2009 in his only appearance in the tournament. Nishikori lost in the second round in all three of his appearances (2008, 2009 and 2011). Brad Gilbert of San Rafael in the San Francisco Bay Area coached him in 2011.
   In the men's doubles quarterfinals today, No. 3 seeds Mike Bryan (Stanford, 1997-98) and Jack Sock of the United States beat Maximo Gonzalez of Argentina and Nicolas Jarry of Chile 6-4, 7-6 (3).
   Bryan and Sock, the reigning Wimbledon champions, are scheduled to play No. 5 seeds Juan Sebastian Cabal and Robert Farah of Colombia on Thursday. Cabal and Farah, the Australian Open runners-up this year, defeated No. 15 Rohan Bopanna of India and Edouard Roger-Vasselin of France 6-3, 6-4.
    Two Northern California juniors were eliminated from the U.S. Open.
   Keenan Mayo, 18, of Roseville in the Sacramento area lost to No. 4 seed Nicolas Mejia of Colombia 6-3, 6-3 in the second round. And in the second round of girls doubles, Hailey Baptiste and Dalayna Hewitt topped fellow Americans Natasha Subhash and Katie Volynets, a 15-year-old resident of Walnut Creek in the Bay Area, 6-4, 7-6 (6).

One defending champ ousted, other survives marathon

No. 3 seed Sloane Stephens, a 25-year-old Fresno product, lost to No. 19 Anas-
tasija Sevastova of Latvia 6-2, 6-3 today in the U.S. Open quarterfinals.
2016 photo by Mal Taam

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   The heat and a tough opponent got to Roger Federer on Monday night.
   The same thing appeared to happen to Sloane Stephens today.
   On another sweltering day in New York, No. 19 seed Anastasija Sevastova of Latvia ousted No. 3 and defending champion Sloane Stephens 6-2, 6-3 in the U.S. Open to reach her first Grand Slam semifinal.
   The men's defending champion, Rafael Nadal, almost lost, too. The No. 1-seeded Nadal edged No. 9 Dominic Thiem of Austria 0-6, 6-4, 7-5, 6-7 (4), 7-6 (5) in a battle that ended at 2:04 a.m. EDT Wednesday. At four hours, 49 minutes, it's the longest match of the tournament.
   Thiem sailed an overhead way long on Nadal's first match point in a rematch of the French Open final in June, won by the Spaniard 6-4, 6-3, 6-2.
   Sevastova, 28, improved to 2-2 against Stephens, a 25-year-old Fresno product. Stephens had won 6-2, 6-2 in the Montreal quarterfinals early last month and 6-3, 3-6, 7-6 (4) in the U.S. Open quarters last year. It was the second consecutive year that Sevastova, who retired in 2013 because of injuries but returned in 2015, had reached the quarters in Flushing Meadows.
   Stephens kneeled in fatigue several times between points during today's match, while Sevastova appeared to be fresh. Both players committed 28 unforced errors, but Sevastova had 18 winners, including an unofficial eight on diabolical drop shots, to Stephens' 13.
   "It was just really hot," Stephens told reporters. "You can't control the weather, can't control what the tournament is going to do. You just have to go with it. It was hot for both of us. She handled it better."
   Stephens added that she has been suffering from a "bad sinus infection" since Monday.
   Sevastova, who also defeated No. 7 seed Elina Svitolina in the fourth round, will meet No. 17 seed Serena Williams, a part-time resident of Silicon Valley, for the first time on Thursday.
   Williams avenged a loss to Karolina Pliskova of the Czech Republic in the 2016 U.S. Open semifinals, beating the No. 8 seed 6-4, 6-3. Williams is trying to win the U.S. Open for the first time in four years and equal Margaret Court's record of 24 Grand Slam singles titles.
   Nadal, who needed 4:23 to subdue rising star Karen Khachanov of Russia in the third round and 3:19 to beat Nikoloz Basilashvili of Georgia in the fourth round, could face his fourth consecutive long match when he plays No. 3 seed Juan Martin del Potro in Friday's semifinals.
   Del Potro, who has had four wrist operations since winning the 2009 U.S. Open, subdued No. 11 John Isner 6-7 (5), 6-3, 7-6 (4), 6-2 in three hours, 31 minutes.
   Nadal, 32, is 11-5 against del Potro, who will turn 30 on Sept. 23. In their last meeting, Nadal prevailed 7-5, 6-7 (7), 4-6, 6-4, 6-4 in four hours, 28 minutes in the Wimbledon quarterfinals in July.
   In the second round of boys singles today, Jenson Brooksby of Carmichael in the Sacramento area dominated Jonas Forejtek of the Czech Republic 6-1, 6-2 in 71 minutes.
   Brooksby, 17, will play Switzerland's Henry Von Der Schulenburg, who defeated Trey Hilderbrand of San Antonio 6-4, 6-4.
   Brooksby won the USTA Boys 18 National Championships last month to earn an automatic wild card into the men's main draw of the U.S. Open. He lost to John Millman 6-4, 6-2, 6-0 in the opening round. Millman went on to stun Federer.
   In the first round of junior doubles:
   --Natasha Subhash of Fairfax, Va., in the Washington, D.C., area and Katie Volynets of Walnut Creek in the San Francisco Bay Area surprised No. 2 seeds Eleonara Molinaro of Luxembourg and Xiyu Wang of China 6-2, 5-7 [10-2].
   --No. 3 seeds Hugo Gaston and Clement Tabur of France defeated Brooksby and Stefan Dostanic of Irvine in the Los Angeles region 6-4, 6-2.

Millman, who has starred in NorCal, shocks Federer

Australian John Millman, shown en route to the title in the 2015
Aptos (Calif.) Challenger, stunned Roger Federer in four sets to-
night in the fourth round of the U.S. Open. Photo by Paul Bauman

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   Roger Federer appeared to be on his way to a routine victory over an unseeded opponent.
   But John Millman had other ideas.
   In what ESPN commentator Patrick McEnroe called "one of the biggest upsets in tennis history," the 55th-ranked Millman defeated the second-seeded Federer 3-6, 7-5, 7-6 (7), 7-6 (3) tonight in the fourth round of the U.S. Open in Flushing Meadows, N.Y.
   Federer, who has won a record 20 Grand Slam singles titles, had two set points on his serve for a two-sets-to-none lead. 
   Millman, a 29-year-old Australian who trained with Federer for this year's grass-court season, was playing in the fourth round of a major for the first time. He had been 0-10 against top-10 players.
   "I'm probably in a little bit of disbelief," Millman said in an on-court interview after the three-hour, 34-minute battle at Arthur Ashe Stadium that ended shortly before 1 a.m. (EDT) Tuesday. "I have so much respect for Roger and what he's done for the game. He's been a hero of mine. He definitely was not at his best tonight ... but I'll take it."
   Federer committed 10 double faults, converted only 49 percent of his first serves and had 77 unforced errors against 65 winners.
   Both players' shirts were drenched in the 83 percent humidity, but the conditions hurt the 37-year-old Federer more. A retractable roof over the stadium was completed two years ago.
   "I just thought it was very hot tonight," Federer said after losing to an unseeded player in the U.S. Open for the first time. "(It) was just one of those nights where I guess I felt I couldn't get air. There was no circulation at all. For some reason, I just struggled in the conditions tonight. It's one of the first times it's happened to me. John dealt with it better than me. He comes from one of most humid places on earth, Brisbane."
   Millman, meanwhile, played brilliantly after overcoming his nerves.
   "I felt like a deer in the headlights to begin with," said Millman, who finished with eight aces, only one double fault, 47 winners and 28 unforced errors. "My feet were not moving, and Roger was moving me around the court. Then I found my feet, and I started to be more aggressive. I started serving really well and capitalized on Roger having an off-serving day."
   Millman, a fitness fanatic and consummate professional who has been hampered by injuries (especially shoulder) during his career, has won two Northern California Challengers (Sacramento in 2010 and Aptos in 2015) and reached the final of another (Tiburon in 2014).
   Millman will add at least $475,000 (not counting $8,250 for losing in the first round of men's doubles) to his career earnings of $1,853,718. He will take on No. 6 seed and two-time U.S. Open champion Novak Djokovic, a 6-3, 6-4, 6-3 winner over Joao Sousa of Portugal, on Wednesday.
   Djokovic routed Millman 6-2, 6-1 in 65 minutes on grass at Queen's Club in London in June in their only previous meeting. In his next tournament, Djokovic won Wimbledon for the fourth time.
   In another men's quarterfinal at Flushing Meadows, No. 7 seed Marin Cilic will meet No. 21 Kei Nishikori in a rematch of the 2014 U.S. Open final. Cilic, the champion four years ago with a 6-3, 6-3, 6-3 victory, and Nishikori advanced with straight-set victories.
   The 5-foot-10 (1.78-meter) Nishikori leads the head-to-head series 7-4, but the 6-foot-6 (1.98-meter) Cilic has won three of the last four encounters.
   In the women's draw, two former champions of the Bank of the West Classic at Stanford, one in singles and one in doubles, will meet in the quarterfinals.
   No. 14 Madison Keys, who won the Bank of the West singles title and reached the U.S. Open final last year, dismissed No. 29 Dominika Cibulkova, the 2013 Stanford singles champion, 6-1, 6-3.
   And No. 30 Carla Suarez Navarro, who took the 2014 Stanford doubles crown with fellow Spaniard Garbine Muguruza, eliminated No. 22 Maria Sharapova 6-4, 6-3.
   Suarez Navarro was playing on her 30th birthday. Sharapova, 31, has won five major singles titles, including a career Grand Slam.
   The 5-foot-10 (1.78-meter) Keys is 3-0 against the 5-foot-4 (1.62-meter) Suarez Navarro. Each match has been on hardcourts or grass and gone to three sets.
   Also in the bottom half of the women's draw, No. 20 seed Naomi Osaka of Japan will play unseeded Lesia Tsurenko of Ukraine in the first major quarterfinal for both players.
   Osaka outlasted No. 26 Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus 6-3, 2-6, 6-4 in a matchup of 20-year-olds. Tsurenko, 29, topped Marketa Vondrousova, a 19-year-old left-hander from the Czech Republic, 6-7 (3), 7-5, 6-2. Tsurenko knocked off No. 2 seed Caroline Wozniacki 6-4, 6-2 in the second round.
   Osaka beat Tsurenko 6-4, 6-3 in the semifinals of a $25,000 hardcourt tournament in Irapuato, Mexico, in 2014 in their only previous encounter.
   Meanwhile, No. 3 seeds Mike Bryan (Stanford, 1997-98) and Jack Sock of the United States advanced to the men's doubles quarterfinals with a 6-2, 6-4 victory over No. 16 Dominic Inglot of Great Britain and Franko Skugor of Croatia.
   In the first round of junior singles, two boys from the Sacramento area defeated French players, but two girls from the San Francisco Bay Area lost to Ukrainian qualifiers.
   Jenson Brooksby, 17, of Carmichael defeated qualifier Valentin Royer 4-6, 6-2, 6-2, and Keenan Mayo, 18, from Roseville beat Clement Tabur 4-6, 7-5, 6-2.
   Brooksby, who won the USTA Boys 18 National Championships last month, will play Jonas Forejtek of the Czech Republic. Forejtek surprised No. 8 seed Naoki Tajima of Japan 6-1, 6-3.
   Mayo will face No. 4 seed Nicolas Mejia, a Colombian who defeated Eliot Spizzirri of Greenwich, Conn., 7-6 (2), 6-2.
   Brooksby plans to enroll at Texas Christian in the fall of 2019 or in January 2020, and Mayo is headed to Illinois.
   On the girls side, Daria Snigur ousted No. 15 seed and 2017 quarterfinalist Katie Volynets, 16, from Walnut Creek, 6-3, 6-4. Also, Dasha Lopatetskaya downed Connie Ma, 15, of Dublin 7-5, 6-0.

Thiem upsets Anderson to reach U.S. Open quarters

Kevin Anderson of the host Sacramento Capitals serves in
a 2012 World TeamTennis match. Photo by Paul Bauman

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   Dominic Thiem's chances against Kevin Anderson didn't look good.
   Anderson was 6-1 against Thiem entering their fourth-round match today in the U.S. Open, with Thiem's victory coming on clay in their last meeting in May.
   The 6-foot-8 (2.03-meter) Anderson had reached last year's U.S. Open final, while the 6-foot-1 (1.85-meter) Thiem had never advanced past the fourth round in Flushing Meadows.
   Anderson, 32, also had something of a home-court advantage. Although he's South African, he starred at the University of Illinois and lives in Florida with his American wife. Thiem, from Austria, has no such connections to the United States.
   None of it mattered, as the ninth-seeded Thiem beat the fifth-seeded Anderson 7-5, 6-2, 7-6 (2) at Louis Armstrong Stadium. Thiem won 41 of 45 points (91 percent) on his first serve and 30 of 46 (65 percent) on his second serve, faced no break points, had 42 winners and only 13 unforced errors, and won 19 of 22 points (86 percent) at the net.
   "I served really, really well today," Thiem, who will turn 25 on Monday, told reporters. "Not the best percentage (49), but I almost made every point in the first-serve game. So I didn't face one break point, and I didn't feel so much pressure on service games.
   "So it was a little it easier to play the return games. I could change my return position, and this helped me a lot. And also the court, I think, made a big difference. It's a huge court. I could go very far back like I do on clay usually."
   Thiem is scheduled to play No. 1 seed Rafael Nadal on Tuesday in a rematch of this year's French Open final, won by the Spaniard 6-4, 6-3, 6-2. Nadal leads the head-to-head series, all on clay, 7-3.
   In the other quarterfinal in the top half of the draw, No. 3 seed Juan Martin del Potro will meet No. 11 John Isner. Del Potro, who has had four wrist operations since winning the 2009 U.S. Open, dismissed No. 20 Borna Coric of Croatia. Isner topped Milos Raonic 3-6, 6-3, 6-4, 3-6, 6-2.
   Del Potro, who will turn 30 on Sept. 23, is 7-4 against Isner, 33, but Isner has won four of the last seven meetings.
   In the women's quarterfinals in the top half of the draw, No. 17 seed Serena Williams will face No. 8 Karolina Pliskova, and No. 3 Sloane Stephens will play No. 19 Anastasija Sevastova of Latvia.
   Williams, a six-time U.S. Open champion who has a residence in Silicon Valley, beat unseeded Kaia Kanepi of Latvia 6-0, 4-6, 6-3. Kanepi stunned No. 1 seed Simona Halep in the first round.
   Pliskova, the U.S. Open runner-up two years ago to Angelique Kerber, beat No. 18 Ashleigh Barty of Australia 6-4, 6-4.
   Williams, who will turn 37 on Sept. 26, and Pliskova, 26, have split two career matches. Williams won 7-5, 6-2 in the second round at Stanford in 2014, and Pliskova triumphed 6-2, 7-6 (5) in the U.S. Open semifinals in 2016.
   Stephens, a 25-year-old Fresno product, outclassed No. 15 seed Elise Mertens of Belgium 6-3, 6-3. Sevastova, a U.S. Open quarterfinalist for the past two years, topped No. 7 Elina Svitolina of Ukraine 6-3, 1-6, 6-0.
   Stephens is 2-1 against Sevastova, 28, winning 6-3, 3-6, 7-6 (4) in last year's U.S. Open quarterfinals and 6-2, 6-2 last month in the Montreal quarters.
   In the third round of women's doubles today, No. 2 seeds Timea Babos of Hungary and Kristina Mladenovic of France defeated No. 14 Raquel Atawo (Cal, 2001-04) of Sacramento and Anna-Lena Groenefeld of Germany 6-3, 6-4. Babos and Mladenovic won the Australian Open this year and reached the 2014 Wimbledon final.

Three of top six women's seeds fall in U.S. Open

No. 4 seed Angelique Kerber lost to No. 29 Dominika Cibulkova
today in a matchup of former champions of the Bank of the West
Classic at Stanford. 2015 photo by Mal Taam

   Three of the top six women's seeds and five of the top 13 lost today in the third round of the U.S. Open, decimating the bottom half of the draw.
   Falling in Flushing Meadows, N.Y., were No. 4 Angelique Kerber, No. 5 Petra Kvitova, No. 6 Caroline Garcia, No. 10 Jelena Ostapenko and No. 13 Kiki Bertens.
   With No. 2 Caroline Wozniacki and No. 11 Daria Kasatkina having lost in the second round, the highest remaining seed in the bottom half is No. 14 Madison Keys, last year's runner-up to Sloane Stephens and champion of the Bank of the West Classic at Stanford.
   Only three top-10 seeds are left: No. 3 Stephens, No. 7 Elina Svitolina and No. 8 Karolina Pliskova. Stephens grew up in Fresno and still has relatives there.
   No. 17 Serena Williams, who's trying to equal Margaret Court's record of 24 Grand Slam singles titles, also remains alive in the top half of the draw.
   The men's No. 4 seed, Alexander Zverev, also lost today, but the other top six seeds -- No. 1 Rafael Nadal, No. 2 Roger Federer, No. 3 Juan Martin del Potro, No. 5 Kevin Anderson and No. 6 Novak Djokovic -- have survived.
   No. 7 Marin Cilic, the 2014 U.S. Open champion, overcame Alex de Minaur, 19, of Australia 4-6, 3-6, 6-3, 6-4, 7-5 in a three-hour, 59-minute battle punctuated by breathtaking rallies. The 6-foot-6 (1.98-meter), 196-pound (89-kilogram) Cilic, seven inches (17.8 centimeters) taller and 44 pounds (20 kilograms) heavier than de Minaur, converted his eighth match point at 2:23 a.m. Sunday (EDT).
   No. 29 seed Dominika Cibulkova ousted Kerber, who won Wimbledon this year and the U.S. Open two years ago, 3-6, 6-3, 6-3 in a matchup of former Bank of the West Classic champions.
   No. 26 Aryna Sabalenka stayed red-hot with a 7-5, 6-1 victory over Kvitova, a two-time Wimbledon champion. Sabalenka, coached by Northern California product Dmitry Tursunov, won the Connecticut Open last week and reached the Cincinnati semifinals the previous week. She will face No. 20 Naomi Osaka, who blitzed Aliaksandra Sasnovich 6-0, 6-0 in 50 minutes.
   No. 30 Carla Suarez Navarro edged Garcia 5-7, 6-4, 7-6 (4) to set up a match against No. 22 Mara Sharapova, who defeated Ostapenko 6-3, 6-2. Sharapova, 31, has won five Grand Slam singles titles, including a career Grand Slam, and Ostapenko, 21, has claimed one.
   Marketa Vondrousova, a 19-year-old Czech, surprised Bertens, who beat four top-seven players en route to the Cincinnati title, 7-6 (4), 2-6, 7-6 (1).
   In a men's all-German encounter, 34-year-old Philipp Kohlschreiber eliminated the 21-year-old Zverev, now being coached by Ivan Lendl, 6-7 (1), 6-4, 6-1, 6-3.
   Federer, seeking his first U.S. Open title since winning his fifth straight 10 years ago, dispatched No. 30 seed Nick Kyrgios 6-4, 6-1, 7-5.
   Federer will meet Australia's John Millman, who beat Mikhail Kukushkin of Kazakhstan 6-4, 4-6, 6-1, 6-3 to reach the fourth round of a major for the first time.
   Millman won the 2015 Aptos (Calif.) Challenger, and Kukushkin advanced to the 2014 Aptos final, losing to former top-10 player Marcos Baghdatis.
   No. 21 seed Kei Nishikori, the 2014 U.S. Open runner-up to Cilic, topped No. 13 Diego Schwartzman, a quarterfinalist at Flushing Meadows last year, 6-4, 6-4, 5-7, 6-1.
   In the second-round doubles matches:
   --No. 3 seeds and reigning Wimbledon champions Mike Bryan (Stanford, 1997-98) and Jack Sock beat Mackenzie McDonald, a 23-year-old product of Piedmont in the San Francisco Bay Area, and Yoshihito Nishioka of Japan 6-1, 7-5.
   --No. 14 seeds Raquel Atawo of Sacramento and Anna-Lena Groenefeld of Germany defeated Victoria Azarenka of Belarus and Latisha Chan of Chinese Taipei 4-1, retired.
   Atawo and Groenefeld will face No. 2 seeds Timea Babos of Hungary and Kristina Mladenovic of France. Babos and Mladenovic won the Australian Open this year and reached the 2014 Wimbledon final.