Stayin’ alive
Serena upsets No. 2 seed to advance to third round
Serena Williams is not going gently into that good night.
The 23-time Grand Slam champion pushed back her U.S. Open farewell again on Tuesday, turning in another memorable prime-time performance in New York, upsetting second-seeded Anett Kontaveit of Estonia 7-6 (4), 2-6, 6-2.
Williams, 40, has indicated that she is soon headed for retirement, but next up is a third-round match against 46th-ranked Ajla Tomljanovic of Australia. The winner of that contest will face an unseeded foe in the fourth round.
“It's no rush here, I'm loving this crowd, and it's really fantastic,” Williams said. “There's still a little left in me. We'll see.”
Williams finished with more winners (37-32) and unforced errors (40-27) than Kontaveit, a 26-year-old who, despite her lofty ranking, has yet to appear in a major semifinal.
“I'm a pretty good player,” Williams said. “This is what I do best. I love a challenge, and I love rising up to a challenge.”
While Williams is a sixtime U.S. Open champion and sits one major away from tying Margaret Court's alltime record, her recent Grand Slam singles performances have been disappointing. She didn't make it past the fourth round in her three most recent major appearances, and she missed three of the past six majors due to injuries.
Canadian Leylah Fernandez couldn't put together another long run at the U.S. Open.
The No. 14 seed was eliminated in the second round Wednesday with a 6-3, 7-6 (3) loss to Liudmila Samsonova.
Fernandez, who turns 20 next week, beat three top-10 players last year during a surprising run to the finals, where she was defeated by Emma Raducanu.
Raducanu was eliminated in the first round this year.
In a late matches featuring Canadians, Felix AugerAliassime, seeded sixth, lost to Britain's Jack Draper 6-4, 6-4, 6-4. Draper is unseeded. Later, unseeded Bianca Andreescu, the 2019 U.S. Open winner over Williams, faced No. 15 Beatriz Haddad Maia of Brazil. Results were unavailable at press time.
Australian Nick Kyrgios powered past Benjamin Bonzi to reach the third round of the U.S. Open with a hard fought 7-6(3), 6-4, 4-6, 6-4 win over the Frenchman.
The big-serving 23rd seed struck 30 aces and broke Bonzi for a fourth time on match point to end the punishing match under the lights at Louis Armstrong Stadium.
“His level today was incredible, I was not expecting an absolute war,” Kyrgios said in an on-court interview. “That could have gone either way. He was up a break early in the fourth, but I played some really risky tennis late in the fourth set to win. I'm just happy to get through.”
In their first career meeting, the pair exchanged breaks in the first set before Kyrgios captured it in a tiebreak and broke early in the second to cruise to a 2-0 lead.
Bonzi responded by taking the third set and went up a break in the fourth before Kyrgios stepped up his game, breaking his serve for a fourth time to set up a third-round meeting with American JJ Wolf, who battled past Alejandro Tabilo 4-6, 7-5, 6-4, 6-3 earlier in the day.
Former world No. 1 Andy Murray survived an early scare to beat American wild card Emilio Nava 5-7, 6-3, 6-1, 6-0 to move into the third round of a Grand Slam for only the second time in five years.
Murray's victory also marked the first time since 2016 that he had reached the third round at Flushing Meadows, where he won his maiden Grand Slam title a decade ago.
The Scot has been attempting to revive his career since hip surgeries threatened to bring it to a premature end and the 35-year-old has shown glimpses of getting back to his best in the first two rounds, dropping only one set so far.
“Physically this is the best I've felt in years . ... I'm getting closer to where I want to be. Hopefully, I can have a deep run here,” Murray said in an on-court interview.
Nava is ranked No. 203 in the world, but the 20-yearold, who knocked out John Millman in the first round, showed he belonged further up the ladder with his confident shotmaking, winning the big points to take a gruelling first set in 84 minutes.
John Isner had to withdraw with a wrist injury, sending No. 28 seed Holger Rune into the third round with a walkover.
The 37-year-old Isner won his first-round match in straight sets Tuesday.
The U.S. Tennis Association announced his withdrawal Wednesday night.
Rune took a set from Novak Djokovic last year in his U.S. Open debut. He will face No. 7 Cam Norrie or Joao Sousa next.
China's Wang Xiyu delivered a big upset by dispatching third-seeded Maria Sakkari 3-6, 7-5, 7-5.
Sakkari was a U.S. Open semifinalist last year, but struggled to find her groove against Wang while experiencing a dreadful setback.
The Greek also said she has struggled mentally since rising up the rankings and didn't want to leave her bed some days.
“It's disappointing, it hurts, because I was feeling better, I was enjoying myself, feeling good on the court, and it was just very disappointing that my level was that low today,” Sakkari said afterward.
The victory was the 75th-ranked Wang's first over a top-10 player. The 21-year-old will face 29th-seeded Alison RiskeAmritraj in the third round after the American produced a 6-4, 6-7 (5), 7-6 (5) win over Colombia's Camila Osorio. Wang overcame 12 double faults to dispose of Sakkari. Both players hit 35 winners and were close in unforced errors — Sakkari had 36, Wang 35.