The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
Murray and Skupski beaten in quarters
Jamie Murray and Neal Skupski were unable to join fellow Briton Joe Salisbury in the semi-finals of the men’s doubles at the US Open.
Murray won the title with Bruno Soares in New York four years ago but Soares was on the other side of the net this time as he and current partner Mate Pavic secured a 6-2 7-6 (7-4) victory.
Salisbury and American Rajeev Ram will play Wesley Koolhof and Nikola Mektic in the last four.
Serena Williams ensured history did not repeat itself as she battled to a fourth-round victory over Maria Sakkari to reach the women’s singles quarter-finals for the 16th time.
In a compelling contest on Arthur Ashe Stadium, Williams recovered from a break down in the deciding set to defeat 15th seed Sakkari 6-3 6-7 (6-8) 6-3.
Williams lost to Sakkari on the same courts in the Western & Southern Open last week from a set and a break up.
Away from the action John McEnroe warned Novak Djokovic he will have to face up to being the “bad guy” for the rest of his career after the world number one was defaulted from the men’s singles for striking a line-judge with a ball.
McEnroe, himself no stranger to grand slam defaults, accused Djokovic of making a “rookie mistake” after the incident, which saw the Serb tossed out of the tournament in his first set against Pablo Carreno Busta.
Djokovic tweeted an apology hours after the incident but, having already courted controversy this year by staging an ill-fated tournament amid the coronavirus pandemic, McEnroe believes he will struggle to live the incident down.
McEnroe told ESPN: “The pressure just got to him, I think. A
lot’s been going on off the court, it’s obviously affected him and now whether he likes it or not he’s going to be the bad guy for the rest of his career.
“It was a rookie mistake made by him to hit a ball back where he wasn’t even looking where he was hitting it. He’s been there and done that, and certainly I know from some experience that you’ve got to be careful out there.”
The top seed and 17-time grand slam champion had just dropped serve to trail his Spanish opponent 6-5 in the opening set of their fourth-round match.
The 33-year-old wrote on Instagram: “This whole situation has left me really sad and empty. 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.”
In addition to forfeiting his prize money of $250,000 ( approximately £ 190,000), Djokovic has also been fined an additional $10,000 dollars (approximately £7,000).