Dominant Carreno Busta seals semi-final berth

US OPEN: Spanish 12th seed reaches last four at grand slam event for first time

Pablo Carreno Busta defeated Diego Schwartzman to reach his first grand slam singles semi-final at the US Open.

The 12th-seeded Spaniard, the highest-ranked player left in the bottom half of the draw, proved too solid for his opponent, winning 6-4 6-4 6-2.

Having reached his first slam quarterfinal at the French Open earlier this summer, Carreno Busta will now take on Sam Querrey or Kevin Anderson for a place in the final.

The 26-year-old dropped his racket and pumped his fists in celebration, and he said: “It’s incredible. It’s something that I always dreamed of but never think I can arrive here.

“It was a very good match today. I tried to be focused all the time, Diego is a fighter. You need to be aggressive all the time and try to dominate the points.”

Carreno Busta had the easier run to the quarter-finals, beating four qualifiers all in straight sets, and he almost certainly benefited from his extra freshness.

Schwartzman was playing in the last eight at a slam for the first time after upsetting Marin Cilic and Lucas Pouille.

But he struggled with a leg problem against Pouille and ultimately could not quite match the consistency of Carreno Busta.

It was a closer match than the scoreline suggested but, as in his fourth-round victory over Denis Shapovalov, Carreno Busta played the big points superbly.

The Spaniard saved eight of the 10 break points he faced while taking six of eight chances on Schwartzman’s serve.

Sloane Stephens continued her remarkable comeback by defeating Anastasija Sevastova to reach the semifinals in the women;s draw.

The American only returned to the tour at Wimbledon after nearly a year out with a foot injury, which left her unable to even stand on a tennis court.

It has taken her only a handful of tournaments to get into her stride and Stephens will play in her second grand semi-final after beating Sevastova 6-3 3-6 7-6 (7-4).

The 24-year-old was hailed as the natural successor to the Williams sisters when she made the semi-finals of the Australian Open and the quarter-finals of Wimbledon in 2013.

But she was unable to push on from those achievements and had become almost the forgotten young talent of American tennis before her return.

Stephens said: “I’m getting tearyeyed. This is just incredible.

“When I started my comeback at Wimbledon I could have never even have dreamed of something like this happening, making the semi-finals of my home slam, my favourite tournament.”

Stephens’ victory keeps alive the home nation’s hopes of a clean sweep in the women’s semi-finals.

Four Americans in the last eight is the most since 2002, with Venus Williams, Coco Vandeweghe and Madison Keys all looking to follow Stephens into the semis.

Sevastova took a medical time-out at 2-5 to have her right thigh massaged but turned things around in the second set, and looked like she was heading for victory at 3-1 in the final set.

Stephens, though, recovered to force a tie-break. And she took her first match point to set up a semi-final against either Williams or Petra Kvitova.

Pablo Carreno Busta celebrates his victory over Diego Schwartzman to reach the semi-finals.