Vika shocks Serena, will face Osaka in U.S. Open final

Victoria Azarenka reached her first Grand Slam singles final
since winning her second consecutive Australian Open title
seven years ago. 2019 photo by Harjanto Sumali

   Victoria Azarenka continued her stunning comeback in stunning fashion tonight.

   In a loud, hard-hitting battle of mothers in their 30s and former world No. 1s, the unseeded Azarenka subdued third-seeded Serena Williams 1-6, 6-3, 6-3 in the semifinals of the U.S. Open in Flushing Meadows, N.Y.

   Williams strained an Achilles tendon in the second game of the third set and took a medical timeout, but she seemed fine after that.

   Azarenka raced to a 3-0 lead in the third set of the shriek-fest, and both players held serve the rest of the way in a rematch of the 2012 and 2013 U.S. Open finals, both of which Williams won in three sets.

   "We both know the match is never over (until the last point)," Azarenka said in an on-court interview regarding her turnaround after the first set. "I knew it's not going to be over at 5-3 (in the third set) either. I've been there before. Today was going to be different."

   Not only is Azarenka eight years younger than Williams, who will turn 39 on Sept. 26, the Belarusian was fresher. Williams played in her fourth consecutive three-set match, including one on Wednesday (players normally have a day off between singles matches in Grand Slam tournaments). Azarenka, meanwhile, annihilated 16th-seeded Elise Mertens 6-1, 6-0 in 73 minutes on Wednesday.

   Azarenka, who had been 0-10 against Williams in Grand Slam tournaments, reached her first major singles final since the 2013 U.S. Open. The two-time Australian Open champion will meet fourth-seeded Naomi Osaka of Japan on Saturday at 1 p.m. PDT (ESPN). 

   Osaka outslugged 28th-seeded Jennifer Brady of Orlando, Fla., 7-6 (1), 3-6, 6-3 to reach her second U.S. Open final in three years. At age 20, Osaka shocked Williams in straight sets in a chaotic match for the first of her two Grand Slam titles.

   Azarenka extended her winning streak to 12 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 will climb at least 13 spots to No. 14 in the world rankings on Monday.

   Azarenka won the now-defunct Bank of the West Classic at Stanford 10 years ago and ascended to No. 1 in 2012 after capturing the first of her two consecutive Australian Open crowns. She played only two tournaments between May 2016 and March 2018 because of her pregnancy and a subsequent child custody dispute, plummeting to No. 978 in May 2017.

   Williams, who claimed the last of her three Bank of the West Classic titles in 2014, again fell short in her quest to tie Margaret Court's record of 24 Grand Slam singles titles.

   Williams has failed to win any of the nine majors in which she has played since capturing the 2017 Australian Open title — losing four finals, all in straight sets — or to reach a final in her last four tournaments. She had a daughter on Sept. 1, 2017, and suffered life-threatening complications.

   Osaka, who made her WTA main-draw debut in the 2014 Bank of the West Classic, is 2-1 against Azarenka, but both victories came on clay.

   Azarenka drubbed Osaka 6-1, 6-1 in the third round of the 2016 Australian Open in their first meeting, but Osaka was only 18 at the time.

   Men's singles semifinals — Fifth-seeded Alexander Zverev of Germany will meet 20th-seeded Pablo Carreno Busta of Spain on Friday at 1 p.m. PDT (ESPN), followed by second-seeded Daniil Medvedev of Russia versus third-seeded Dominic Thiem of Austria.

    Either Zverev, the 23-year-old son of former Russian pro Alexander Zverev Sr., or Carreno Busta, 29, will play in his first Grand Slam final.

   The 6-foot-6 (1.98-meter) Zverev defeated Carreno Busta 7-6 (4), 6-2 in the 2018 Miami semis in their only previous meeting.

   Carreno Busta advanced to the quarterfinals when top-ranked Novak Djokovic was defaulted for accidentally hitting a line judge in the throat with a ball. Carreno Busta had just broken serve to lead 6-5.

   The 24-year-old Medvedev, last year's runner-up to Rafael Nadal in a five-set epic, is the only men's semifinalist who has not lost a set in the tournament.

   Thiem, a three-time Grand Slam runner-up, is 2-1 against Medvedev. However, the 6-foot-6 (1.98-meter) Russian won the last meeting 6-3, 6-1 in the Montreal quarters last year.

   Men's doubles final — Unseeded Mate Pavic of Croatia and Bruno Soares of Brazil won their first Grand Slam title together, defeating eighth-seeded Wesley Koolhof of the Netherlands and Nikola Mektic of Croatia 7-5, 6-3.

   Soares, 38, claimed his third major men's doubles crown and Pavic, a 27-year-old left-hander, his second. They split $400,000.

   In the first round, Pavic and Soares trailed by a service break in the third set against fifth seeds and 2019 U.S. Open runners-up Marcel Granollers of Spain and Horacio Zeballos of Argentina. In the second round, Americans Jack Sock and Jackson Withrow served for the match against the eventual champions.

   Koolhof and Mektic, both 31, were playing in their first Grand Slam men's doubles final. They shared $240,000. 

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. 

Brady breezes into first Grand Slam semifinal

   Since American Jennifer Brady began working with Michael Geserer of Germany last October, her career has reached new heights.

   The 28th-seeded Brady rolled to a 6-3, 6-2 victory over 23rd-seeded Yulia Putintseva, a Moscow native who plays for Kazakhstan, in 69 minutes today to reach the U.S. Open semifinals in Flushing Meadows, N.Y. 

   Brady was playing in her first Grand Slam quarterfinal and Putintseva her third in a matchup of 25-year-olds. The 5-foot-4 (1.63-meter) Putintseva also advanced to the last eight in the 2016 and 2018 French Open. 

   Brady had never won a set in two previous matches against Putintseva, both in 2018 and one on clay in the French Open.

   Since the WTA tour resumed last month, the 5-foot-10 (1.78-meter) Brady has used her powerful serve and forehand to win 11 of 12 matches, never surrendering more than four games in a set in the victories. Her closest victory during the hot streak was a 6-3, 6-4 decision over Jil Teichmann, a Swiss left-hander, in the Lexington, Ky., final. That gave Brady her first WTA title.

   The highest-ranked player Brady has beaten in the 11 victories was No. 23 Angelique Kerber in the fourth round of the U.S. Open. Brady recorded her first two top-10 wins this year before the women's and men's tours shut down in March. As a qualifier, she knocked off top-ranked Ashleigh Barty to reach the quarterfinals in Brisbane in January and No. 6 Elina Svitolina en route to the Dubai semifinals in February. 

   Geserer formerly coached Julia Goerges, a German who reached the Wimbledon semifinals in 2018 to climb to a career-high No. 9.

   "I told myself I want to try something new, do something different, commit to it, and I did, and I'm really happy I did," Brady told WTA Insider in January.

   Ranked No. 55 at the end of 2019, Brady will soar at least 16 places to a career-high No. 25 on Monday. 

   Geserer told WTA Insider in April that he tries "to have a positive look and a positive approach on every day and in every situation. I believe that with smart and good work you will reach your goals."

   Brady, a former UCLA All-American, starred in Northern California Challengers. She won the singles and doubles titles in Redding ($25,000) in 2014 at age 19 and reached the quarterfinals as the top seed in Sacramento ($60,000) in 2017, losing to defending champion Sofia Kenin.

   Also in 2017, Brady advanced to the fourth round of the Australian Open at age 21 and U.S. Open at 22. She became the first American female qualifier to advance to the last 16 in Melbourne in the Open Era.

   Brady will face Naomi Osaka, seeded fourth and ranked ninth. Osaka, who won the first of her two Grand Slam titles in the 2018 U.S. Open at age 20, dismissed unseeded American Shelby Rogers 6-3, 6-4.

   Osaka and Brady have split two career matches, most recently in 2018. 

   In the men's draw, fifth-seeded Alexander Zverev of Germany beat 27th-seeded Borna Coric of Croatia 1-6, 7-6 (5), 7-6 (1), 6-3 to reach his second consecutive Grand Slam semifinal.

   The 6-foot-6 (1.98-meter) Zverev rallied from a 2-4 deficit in the second set to improve to 2-3 against Coric and become the first German to reach the U.S. Open semifinals since Boris Becker in 1995.

   "I started playing more aggressively," Zverev, who had 18 aces and 12 double faults, said in an on-court interview. "I wasn't playing aggressively enough in the quarterfinals of a Grand Slam tournament.

   "I was more consistent (after that), and my serve got better. I had nothing to lose at that moment."

   Zverev, the 23-year-old son of former Russian pro Alexander Zverev Sr., is set to meet 20th-seeded Pablo Carreno Busta, a 29-year-old Spaniard, on Friday.

   Carreno Busta outlasted 12th-seeded Denis Shapovalov of Canada 3-6, 7-6 (5), 7-6 (4), 0-6, 6-3 to reach the U.S. Open semifinals for the second time. Carreno Busta scored the only break of the fifth set on a double fault to lead 4-2. The 4-hour, 8-minute match ended at 1:07 a.m. EDT Wednesday.

   Carreno Busta advanced to the quarters when top-ranked Novak Djokovic was defaulted Sunday for accidentally hitting a line judge in the throat with a ball.

   Zverev defeated Carreno Busta, who also reached the U.S. Open semis three years ago, 7-6 (4), 6-2 in the 2018 Miami semis in their only previous meeting.

   In the men's doubles semifinals, eighth-seeded Wesley Koolhof of the Netherlands and Nikola Mektic of Croatia eliminated third-seeded Rajeev Ram of Carmel, Ind., and Joe Salisbury of Great Britain 7-6 (3), 6-4.

   Ram, a volunteer assistant coach at the University of California, Berkeley, and Salisbury, who won the doubles title in the 2017 Stockton (Calif.) Challenger with compatriot Brydan Klein, were seeking their second consecutive Grand Slam title.

   Koolhof and Mektic will play unseeded Mate Pavic of Croatia and Bruno Soares of Brazil for the title on Thursday. Pavic and Soares topped unseeded Jean-Julien Rojer of the Netherlands and Horia Tecau of Romania, the 2017 U.S. Open champions, 6-4, 7-5.

Mamma mia: Serena, Pironkova, Vika reach quarters

Serena Williams avenged a loss to Maria Sakkari two weeks ago
in the Western & Southern Open. File photo by Paul Bauman 

   Two mothers in their 30s will meet in the U.S. Open quarterfinals on Wednesday.

   One of them was expected, the other far from it. 

   Third-seeded Serena Williams, who will turn 39 on Sept. 26, defeated 15th-seeded Maria Sakkari of Greece 6-3, 6-7 (6), 6-3 today in the fourth round in Flushing Meadows, N.Y.

   Tsvetana Pironkova, a 32-year-old Bulgarian, beat Alize Cornet of France 6-4, 6-7 (5), 6-3 in a matchup of unseeded players. Pironkova is playing in her first tournament since Wimbledon in 2017 after starting a family.

   A third mother in her 30s, unseeded Victoria Azarenka, topped 20th-seeded Karolina Muchova of the Czech Republic 5-7, 6-1, 6-4. Muchova, a Wimbledon quarterfinalist last year, appeared on the verge of retiring with a hamstring injury early in the third set.

   It's the first time that three mothers have advanced to the quarterfinals of a Grand Slam tournament.

   Williams overcame a 0-2 deficit in the third set to even her record against Sakkari at 1-1. Sakkari beat Williams 5-7, 7-6 (5), 6-1 in the third round of the Western & Southern Open two weeks ago in Flushing Meadows.

   Williams won the last of her six U.S. Open singles titles in 2014. She has reached the last two U.S. Open finals, losing to upstarts Naomi Osaka and Bianca Andreescu in straight sets in an attempt to tie Margaret Court's record of 24 Grand Slam singles titles. That quest continues.

   Sakkari, the runner-up in the inaugural Mubadala Silicon Valley Classic in San Jose, Calif., in 2018, was trying to reach her first Grand Slam quarterfinal.

   Williams — who won the now-defunct Bank of the West Classic at Stanford in 2011, 2012 and 2014 — is 4-0 against Pironkova. Williams won the last encounter 7-5, 6-3 in the second round in Cincinnati in 2015. Three weeks later, the top-ranked Williams lost to No. 43 Roberta Vinci of Italy in one of the biggest upsets in sports history while trying to complete the first calendar-year Grand Slam since Steffi Graf in 1988. 

   Azarenka, 31, extended her winning streak to 10 matches, including a walkover in the final of the Western & Southern Open, 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.

   Azarenka will face 16th-seeded Elise Mertens, 24, of Belgium for the first time in the quarters. Mertens, a semifinalist in the inaugural Mubadala Silicon Valley Classic, dominated second-seeded Sofia Kenin of the United States 6-3, 6-3.

   Kenin won Northern California Challengers in 2016 at 17, 2017 and 2018 and stormed to her first Grand Slam title in the Australian Open in January.

   In the men's draw, second-seeded Dominic Thiem of Austria eliminated 15th-seeded Felix Auger-Aliassime, a 20-year-old Canadian, 7-6 (4), 6-1, 6-1.

   Thiem, a three-time runner-up in Grand Slam tournaments, is set to play 21st-seeded Alex de Minaur on Wednesday. The 21-year-old Australian beat unseeded Vasek Pospisil of Canada 7-6 (6), 6-3, 6-2 to reach his first major quarterfinal.

   Pospisil won the Wimbledon doubles title in 2014 with American Jack Sock, advanced to the singles final in the 2017 San Francisco Challenger and underwent back surgery in January 2019.

   Thiem, 26, is 2-0 against de Minaur, including a straight-set victory in the first round of the 2017 U.S. Open.

   The other quarterfinal in the bottom half of the draw will be an all-Russian affair. 

   Third-seeded Daniil Medvedev, last year's runner-up to Rafael Nadal in a five-set epic, dismissed the last remaining U.S. man, unseeded Frances Tiafoe, 6-4, 6-1, 6-0. The 6-foot-6 (1.98-meter) Medvedev, 24, has not lost more than four games in a set in four tournament matches.

   Tiafoe won the 2016 Stockton, Calif., Challenger at 18 years old to crack the top 100 and climbed to a career-high No. 29 in February 2019. He will rise 16 places to No. 66 after the U.S. Open.

   Tenth-seeded Andrey Rublev outplayed sixth-seeded Matteo Berrettini, a semifinalist in last year's U.S. Open, 4-6, 6-3, 6-3, 6-3.

   Rublev, 22, avenged a straight-set loss to the 24-year-old Italian in the round of 16 at Flushing Meadows in 2019 and reached his second Grand Slam quarterfinal. He also advanced to the Elite Eight in the 2017 U.S. Open at 19 before missing three months in 2018 with a lower-back stress fracture and six weeks in 2019 with a wrist injury.

   Medvedev has not lost a set in three career matches against Rublev.

   Barty out of French Open — Top-ranked Ashleigh Barty announced on Instagram that she will not defend her French Open title.

   The 24-year-old Australian cited coronavirus concerns and inadequate preparation. The French Open, normally held in late May and early June, was moved to Sept. 27-Oct. 11 because of the pandemic.

   "It has been a difficult decision to make but unfortunately I will not be competing in Europe this year," Barty wrote. "Last year's French Open was the most special tournament of my career so this is not a decision I have made lightly. There are two reasons for my decision. The first is the health risks that still exist with Covid. The second is my preparation, which has not been ideal without my coach being able to train with me due to the state border closures in Australia."

   Barty, who also skipped the U.S. Open, said she will not play again this year.

Djokovic defaulted for hitting line judge with ball

With Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer absent, Novak Djokovic
had been heavily favored to win his fourth U.S. Open title.
File photo by Paul Bauman

   As if the U.S. Open wasn't strange enough already, it became even more bizarre today.

   In a stunning development, top-ranked Novak Djokovic was defaulted from his fourth-round match in Flushing Meadows, N.Y., for accidentally hitting a line judge in the throat with a ball.

   After losing his serve to trail 20th-seeded Pablo Carreno Busta of Spain 5-6 in the first set at Arthur Ashe Stadium, Djokovic flicked a ball underhand in anger toward the wall behind his baseline as he started to walk to his chair.

   The ball struck the line judge, who fell to the court. Djokovic immediately put his hand up in apology and walked to the woman, who gasped for air and moaned repeatedly while sitting on the court before walking off unassisted. She reportedly was OK. 

   After 10 or 15 minutes, during which officials conferred on the court and Djokovic pleaded his case in the virtually empty stadium, he was defaulted for ball abuse. The 33-year-old Serb shook hands with the 29-year-old Carreno Busta, a U.S. Open semifinalist in 2017, and left the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center without talking to the media.

   Fans are not permitted at the tournament because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

   "This whole situation has left me really sad and empty," Djokovic wrote on Instragram after his earliest exit from a Grand Slam tournament since a fourth-round loss in the 2018 Australian Open,. "I checked on the lines person and the tournament told me that thank God she is feeling OK. I'm extremely sorry to have caused her such stress. So unintended. So wrong. I'm not disclosing her name to respect her privacy.

   "As for the disqualification, I need to go back within and work on my disappointment and turn this all into a lesson for my growth and evolution as a player and human being. I apologize to the @usopen tournament and everyone associated for my behavior. I'm very grateful to my team and family for being my rock support, and my fans for always being there with me. Thank you and I'm so sorry."

   The 2020 Official Grand Slam Rule Book defines ball abuse as "intentionally hitting a ball out of the enclosure of the court, hitting a ball dangerously or recklessly within the court or hitting a ball with negligent disregard of the consequences."

   "Players have been defaulted for less," said ESPN commentator Darren Cahill, who coaches reigning Wimbledon champion Simona Halep, reached a career-high No. 22 in 1989 and won one of his two ATP singles titles in San Francisco in 1991. "The tournament made the right decision. The ranking of a player cannot come into account. It's tough for the tournament and tough for Novak."

   Cahill's colleague and fellow Australian, former doubles world No. 1 Rennae Stubbs, declared, "This will be remembered by Djokovic and journalists for the rest of his career."

   Djokovic was on edge even before the incident. He furiously swatted a ball against a sign on the side of the court earlier in the set and hurt his left shoulder breaking a fall with his arm while serving at 5-5, 0-15.

   "He has many great qualities as a person, but he's not in control of (his emotions)," said ESPN commentator Patrick McEnroe, a former U.S. Davis Cup captain who reached career highs of No. 28 in singles and No. 3 in doubles. "He has (smacked balls in anger) many times in his career. When you do that, you're playing with fire, and he played with fire one time too many."

   Djokovic, who has earned $143.9 million in prize money, also will forfeit $250,000 for reaching the round of 16 and faces a fine of up to the same amount. He fell to 26-1 this year and 29-1 since November.

   Ironies abound surrounding Djokovic's default.

   Two years ago at Arthur Ashe Stadium, heavily favored Serena Williams was penalized a game for her third code violation in a 6-2, 6-4 loss to 20-year-old Naomi Osaka in a chaotic U.S. Open final. 

   In the 2009 U.S. Open semifinals, Williams was assessed a point penalty for threatening a line judge who had called a foot fault against her. The penalty came on match point, giving Kim Clijsters a 6-4, 7-5 victory.

   Ashe, an International Tennis Hall of Famer, was known for his composure and grace on and off the court. He died of AIDS at 49 in 1993 after receiving a tainted blood transfusion during heart bypass surgery.

   Twelfth-seeded Denis Shapovalov, a 21-year-old rising star from Canada, beat seventh-seeded David Goffin of Belgium 6-7 (0), 6-3, 6-4, 6-3 in tonight's first featured match at Arthur Ashe Stadium to reach his first Grand Slam quarterfinal. Shapovalov was defaulted from a Davis Cup match in 2017 after hitting chair umpire Arnaud Gabas in the eye with a ball at age 17. Gabas had surgery for a broken eye socket.

   Pressure has been mounting on Djokovic for months. He came under fire in April after revealing that he opposes vaccinations and in June after several players, including himself, participated in a charity tournament in Serbia organized by Djokovic and subsequently tested positive for coronavirus. Fans packed the stands, and social distancing was not observed.

    Djokovic also resigned as president of the ATP Player Council last week and announced the formation of a new players association. 

    In the absence of defending champion Rafael Nadal (coronavirus concerns) and five-time winner Roger Federer (two arthroscopic knee surgeries this year), Djokovic had been heavily favored to win his fourth U.S. Open title. Djokovic has amassed 17 Grand Slam singles championships, third in history behind Federer (20) and Nadal (19).

   With Djokovic's departure, a new Grand Slam men's champion will be crowned next Sunday (1 p.m. PDT on ESPN) for the first time since Marin Cilic won the 2014 U.S. Open.

   Two remaining players, both in the bottom half of the draw, have played in major finals. Second-seeded Dominic Thiem of Austria lost to Nadal in the 2018 and 2019 French Open finals and to Djokovic in the Australian Open title match in January. His best result at Flushing Meadows is a quarterfinal appearance in 2018. Third-seeded Daniil Medvedev of Russia fell to Nadal in a five-set epic in last year's U.S. Open final.

   Cahill, McEnroe and colleague Brad Gilbert pick Medvedev to become the first man other than the Big Five of Federer, Nadal, Djokovic, Andy Murray and Stan Wawrinka to win a Slam since Cilic.

   Juan Martin del Potro of Argentina, who shocked Federer to claim the 2009 U.S. Open, is the only other player besides the Big Five to capture a major since 2005.

   This is also the first Grand Slam tournament since the 2004 French Open in which neither Federer, Nadal nor Djokovic has reached the quarterfinals.

   Much as Williams' histrionics overshadowed Osaka's breakthrough, Djokovic's default eclipsed two American women reaching the quarterfinals in the top half of the draw.

   Unseeded Shelby Rogers saved four match points in a 7-6 (5), 3-6, 7-6 (6) victory over sixth-seeded Petra Kvitova, a two-time Wimbledon champion. Rogers also advanced to the French Open quarterfinals in 2016 before having knee surgery in 2018.

   Rogers, 27, is scheduled to meet the fourth-seeded Osaka, a 6-3, 6-4 winner over 14th-seeded Anett Kontaveit of Estonia, on Tuesday. Osaka, 22, never faced a break point against Kontaveit and converted her sixth match point.

   Rogers has never lost a set in three career matches against Osaka, but their last meeting was in 2017 and two of the encounters were on clay.

   Jennifer Brady, seeded 28th, outslugged 17th-seeded Angelique Kerber, who won the second of her three Grand Slam singles crowns in the 2016 U.S. Open, 6-1, 6-4 to reach her first Grand Slam quarterfinal.

   Brady excelled in Northern California Challengers. She won the singles and doubles titles in Redding ($25,000) in 2014 at age 19 and reached the quarterfinals as the top seed in Sacramento ($60,000) in 2017, losing to defending champion Sofia Kenin.

   Brady, who won her first WTA title three weeks ago in Lexington, Ky., is set to face 23rd-seeded Yulia Putintseva, a Moscow native who plays for Kazakhstan. The 5-foot-4 (1.63-meter) Putintseva, a  two-time French Open quarterfinalist, topped eighth-seeded Petra Martic of Croatia 6-3, 2-6, 6-4.

   The 5-foot-10 (1.78-meter) Brady, 25, has never won a set in two career matches against Putintseva, both in 2018 and one on clay in the French Open.

   "This is a different Jennifer Brady than two years ago," Stubbs asserted. "She absolutely can win this tournament if she truly believes in herself."

Serena subdues Stephens, earns rematch vs. Sakkari

Serena Williams improved to 6-1 against Sloane Stephens and reached the round
of 16 in the U.S. Open. 2019 photo by Harjanto Sumali

   In a matchup of American former U.S. Open champions, third-seeded Serena Williams defeated 26th-seeded Sloane Stephens 2-6, 6-2, 6-2 today in the third round of the Grand Slam tournament in Flushing Meadows, N.Y.

   Williams pounded 12 aces and Stephens none. Williams had 29 winners and 23 unforced errors to Stephens' 25 and 18, respectively.

   "I don't think she made any errors in the first set," Williams, who improved to 6-1 in the head-to-head series, said in an on-court interview. "She just was playing so clean. I just said, 'I don't want to lose in straight sets. OK, Serena, just get a game, get a game. Next thing I know, I won the second set, and I was like, OK, great.' "

   Williams, who will turn 39 on Sept. 26, won the last of her six U.S. Open singles titles in 2014. She has reached the last two finals in Flushing Meadows, losing to upstarts Naomi Osaka and Bianca Andreescu in straight sets in an attempt to tie Margaret Court's record of 24 Grand Slam singles titles. Williams also won the now-defunct Bank of the West Classic at Stanford in 2011, 2012 and 2014.

   Stephens, a 27-year-old Fresno, Calif., product now based in Florida, captured her only Grand Slam title in the 2017 U.S. Open. She also reached the 2018 French Open final, losing to Simona Halep.

   Williams, ranked eighth, is scheduled to face Greece's Maria Sakkari, seeded 15th and ranked 22nd, for the second consecutive tournament on Monday at a time to be announced (ESPN2). 

   Sakkari, the runner-up in the inaugural Mubadala Silicon Valley Classic in San Jose, Calif., in 2018, routed 22nd-seeded Amanda Anisimova, a 19-year-old American, 6-3, 6-1 in 55 minutes. Anisimova won her first professional title in the 2017 Sacramento (Calif.) Challenger at 15.

   Sakkari surprised Williams 5-7, 7-6 (5), 6-1 in the third round of last week's Western & Southern Open in Flushing Meadows in their only previous meeting.

   Also today, unranked Tsvetana Pironkova, playing in her first tournament since Wimbledon in 2017 after starting a family, beat 18th-seeded Donna Vekic of Croatia 6-4, 6-1. Vekic advanced to the San Jose semifinals last summer.

   In the first featured night match, French veteran Alize Cornet beat seventh-seeded Madison Keys, the 2017 runner-up to Stephens at Flushing Meadows and champion of the last Bank of the West Classic, 7-6 (4), 3-2, retired (neck).

   In the men's draw, unseeded Vasek Pospisil of Canada ousted eighth-seeded Roberto Bautista Agut of Spain 7-5, 2-6, 4-6, 6-3, 6-2. 

   Pospisil, ranked No. 94 after climbing to a career-high No. 25 in 2014, had back surgery in January 2019 and missed the first six months of the season. He won the Wimbledon doubles title in 2014 with American Jack Sock and advanced to the singles final in the 2017 San Francisco Challenger, falling to China's Ze Zhang.

  The 30-year-old Pospisil — one of three Canadian men in the round of 16 with 12th-seeded Denis Shapovalov, 21, and 15th-seeded Felix Auger-Aliassime, 20 — had not advanced past the second round of a major since reaching the Wimbledon quarterfinals in 2015. 

   Pospisil will play 21st-seeded Alex de Minaur, a 21-year-old Australian who eliminated 11th-seeded Karen Khachanov of Russia 6-4, 0-6, 4-6, 6-3, 6-1. De Minaur leads the head-to-head series 2-0. 

   Frances Tiafoe, 22, dominated Marton Fucsovics of Hungary 6-2, 6-3, 6-2 in a clash of unseeded players to become the only American man in the round of 16. 

   Tiafoe, who won the 2016 Stockton (Calif.) Challenger to crack the top 100 at age 18, will face third-seeded Daniil Medvedev, who lost a five-set epic to Rafael Nadal in last year's final. 

   Medvedev, a 24-year-old Russian who stands 6-foot-6 (1.98 meters), has not lost more than four games in a set in three matches this week. He is 2-0 against Tiafoe in tour-level events, including a 6-3, 4-6, 6-4, 6-2 victory in the first round of the Australian Open in January.  

Shapovalov frustrates Fritz with five-set win

Denis Shapovalov, a 21-year-old Canadian, reached
 the fourth round of the U.S. Open for the second time.
2016 photo by Paul Bauman 

   Taylor Fritz was in position to reach the fourth round of a Grand Slam tournament for the first time.

   Instead, Denis Shapovalov rallied to advance that far in a major for the second time.

   In a matchup of rising stars, the 12th-seeded Shapovalov defeated the 19th-seeded Fritz 3-6, 6-3, 4-6, 7-6 (5), 6-2 in 3 hours, 26 minutes in the U.S. Open.

   Fritz, a 22-year-old Southern Californian ranked 25th, served for the match at 5-3 in the fourth set at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Flushing Meadows, N.Y.

   "He was playing incredibly well today, and I think we both deserved to win," Shapovalov, a 21-year-old Canadian with a sensational one-handed backhand, said in an on-court interview. "It was great tennis, and I think I just got a little bit lucky.

   "I stayed with him in the fourth set, when he was in control, and I saw him get a little bit tight. I tried to make him play as much as possible, then I got a little bit lucky on the set point and read it correctly to hit a good forehand.

   "I figured I needed to make a change for the fifth set, and I picked up my intensity and level."

   Less than one year after losing to U.S. veteran Tim Smyczek in the first round of the $100,000 Fairfield, Calif., Challenger in 2016, Shapovalov reached the fourth round of the 2017 U.S. Open at 18.

   Fritz, the son of former top-10 player Kathy May and ex-pro Guy Fritz, won his first two Challenger titles in Sacramento, Calif., and Fairfield in consecutive weeks at 17 in 2015.

   Shapovalov, ranked 17th, is scheduled to play Belgium's David Goffin, seeded seventh and ranked 10th, for the second time on Sunday. Goffin, only 5-foot-11 (1.80 meters), prevailed 7-6 (5), 7-6 (2) in the second round in Tokyo last fall.

   Goffin beat 26th-seeded Filip Krajinovic of Serbia 6-1, 7-6 (5), 6-4 to reach the fourth round of the U.S. Open for the fourth consecutive year. With another victory, Goffin will have advanced to the quarterfinals of every major.

   In a thriller that ended at 1:10 a.m. EDT Saturday, 27th-seeded Borna Coric of Croatia saved six match points in a 6-7 (2), 6-4, 4-6, 7-5, 7-6 (4) victory over fourth-seeded Stefanos Tsitsipas of Greece. The battle lasted 4:36.

   Top-ranked Novak Djokovic dispatched 28th-seeded Jan-Lennard Struff of Germany 6-3, 6-3, 6-1 in their second meeting in two weeks. 

   Djokovic dismissed Struff 6-3, 6-1 in the quarterfinals of last week's Western & Southern Open in Flushing Meadows. Djokovic also defeated Struff in four sets in the first round of the Australian Open in January.

   Djokovic, a three-time U.S. Open champion, improved to 26-0 this year and 29-0 dating to November.

   Sixth-seeded Petra Kvitova, a two-time Wimbledon champion and two-time U.S. Open quarterfinalist, beat unseeded Jessica Pegula, a 26-year-old American making her first appearance in the third round of a Grand Slam tournament, 6-4, 6-3.

   Kvitova reached the quarterfinals of the last Bank of the West Classic at Stanford in 2017 in her only Northern California appearance. The tournament moved to San Jose as the Mubadala Silicon Valley Classic in 2018.

   Pegula, the daughter of Buffalo Bills and Sabres owners Terry and Kim Pegula, advanced to the final of the 2012 Sacramento (Calif.) Challenger at 18 and semifinals of the 2018 Stockton (Calif.) Challenger.