Top talent lives up to advance billing at U.S. Open
Rafael Nadal easily returned to the U.S. Open quarter-finals for the first time in four years by routing Alexandr Dolgopolov 6-2, 6-4, 6-1 on Monday.
Nadal turned in his most powerful performance yet on a dominant day for the No. 1 seeds, and moved a victory away from a potential semifinal showdown with longtime rival Roger Federer.
Shortly after top-seeded Karolina Pliskova overwhelmed American Jennifer Brady 6-1, 6-0 in just 47 minutes, Nadal punished an opponent who had beaten him in two of the previous three meetings.
He never gave the unseeded Dolgopolov a chance on Monday, breaking serve six times in the one-hour-41-minute match.
Nadal hadn’t reached the quarter-finals in Flushing Meadows since the last of his two U.S. Open titles in 2013. He advanced to face 19-yearold Russian Andrey Rublev, the youngest quarter-finalist since Andy Roddick had just turned 19 in 2001.
Rublev upset No. 9 seed David Goffin 7-5, 7-6 (5), 6-3, and will be Nadal’s fifth straight unseeded opponent.
“I am in quarter-finals against a tough opponent now. I need to be ready to keep fighting and play better than today, and that’s my goal,” Nadal said.
Federer was trying to keep alive his hopes of the longawaited first matchup at the U.S. Open with Nadal when he brought an 11-0 record against No. 33 seed Philipp Kohlschreiber into their night matchup.
Nadal had dropped the first set in the two previous rounds, but he was locked in from the start of his 50th U.S. Open victory, never losing serve and facing just two break points.
The second match of the day at Arthur Ashe Stadium started perhaps a little earlier than expected, thanks to the ease of Pliskova’s victory.
Two days after having to fight off a match point to advance, the Czech ran her unseeded opponent off the court as fans were still just filing into the grounds at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center.
The 25-year-old won 22 of 24 points on her first serve, broke Brady’s serve six times and advanced to face No. 20 Coco Vandeweghe.
“Sometimes you just need to have some of those matches where you can just really get through it. You don’t even know why, but the game improves so much,” Pliskova said. “So I didn’t change anything. I didn’t even practise yesterday. So there is nothing really (that) I did different, but I just felt much better.”
Former champion Juan Martin del Potro, the No. 24 seed, faced sixth-seeded Dominic Thiem, with the winner getting Federer if the five-time champion can improve his 31-1 record in night matches at Arthur Ashe Stadium.
Women’s No. 4 Elina Svitolina meets No. 15 seed Madison Keys in the nightcap.
Keys is trying to join fellow Americans Venus Williams, Sloane Stephens and Vandeweghe in the women’s quarters.