Murray, Djoko stay on course
Serena lone American in singles event
New York, Aug. 31: Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray stayed on course for a mouthwatering US Open quarter- final showdown on Saturday as fivetime women’s champion Serena Williams stood alone as America’s last singles title hope.
But as the heavyweights of the sport eased into the fourth round, the women’s draw was blown open again when Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova became the fifth top 10 seed to exit in the first week.
Kvitova’s misery was shared by American tennis after John Isner and Sam Querrey were both knocked out in the third round leaving the hosts still without a men’s Grand Slam champion since Andy Roddick triumphed in New York in 2003.
Djokovic, the 2011 champion, brushed aside Querrey for the eighth time in nine meetings, with a 6- 3, 6- 2, 6- 2 win taking the world number one into the fourth round at a major for the 22nd consecutive time.
Wimbledon champion and seven- time major winner Djokovic will next face Germany’s Philipp Kohlschreiber who ended US hopes with a 7- 6 ( 7/ 4), 4- 6, 7- 6 ( 7/ 2), 7- 6 ( 7/ 4) win over Isner despite the American 13th seed firing 42 aces and 77 winners.
Williams racked up her 75th victory at the US Open when she eased past her third successive American compatriot, Uzbekistan- born left- hander Varvara Lepchenko, 6- 3, 6- 3 and will tackle tough Estonian Kaia Kanepi for a quarter- final berth.
Murray hit 47 winners in a 6- 1, 7- 5, 4- 6, 6- 2 win over Russia’s Andrey Kuznetsov, the world 96, to book a seventh appearance in the fourth round and goes on to face French ninth seed Jo- Wilfried Tsonga, who beat Pablo Carreno- Busta of Spain, 6- 4, 6- 4, 6- 4. Third seeded Stan Wawrinka, the Australian Open champion, reached the fourth round without hitting a ball when Slovenian opponent Blaz Kavcic withdrew with a right foot injury.
That took the number of retirements and walkovers at this year’s US Open to 10 in the men’s event and two in the women’s.
Wawrinka next faces 16th- seeded Spaniard Tommy Robredo, a 36, 6- 3, 7- 6 ( 7/ 4), 6- 3 winner over Australian Nick Kyrgios, who had shocked Rafael Nadal in the fourth round at Wimbledon. Sania Mirza fought through a gruelling schedule to enter the last 16 of the women’s doubles and quarter- finals of the mixed doubles, by winning both her respective second- round matches on an all- win day for Indians.
Sania first teamed up Zimbabwean Cara Back in the women’s doubles to beat the French- Romanian combine of Caroline Garcia and Monica Niculescu 6- 1, 6- 2.
In the evening session, Sania was back on the court pairing up with Brazillian Bruno Soares in the mixed doubles second round, defeating Australia- British duo of Casey Dellacqua and Jamie Murray 6- 2, 7- 6 ( 8).
Among other Indians in fray, Leander Paes and Cara Black also advanced to the mixed doubles quarter- finals. The third seeds edged past Russia’s Alla Kudryavtseva and Pakistan’s Aisam- Ul- Haq Qureshi 6- 1, 4- 6, 10- 4.