Young Brit storms into the last eight
NEW YORK: Emma Raducanu has shone on the US Open’s centre stage with another thumping win to become the youngest British player to reach the quarterfinals in New York in the Open era.
Shelby Rogers beat world No 1 Ashleigh Barty on Sunday but it was a very different experience for the American yesterday as Raducanu reeled off 11 successive games in a 62, 61 rout to book a lasteight date with Olympic champion Belinda Bencic.
Raducanu becomes the first woman since Jennifer Capriati in 1990 to reach at least the fourth round of her first two grand slam tournaments and she is only the third qualifier to reach the quarterfinals at Flushing Meadows.
Rogers is ranked 43 in the world but this has been the tournament where the teenagers have shown that experience can count for little and Raducanu left another quality opponent shellshocked.
Raducanu went into the match having dropped only 12 games through three matches, the fewest of any of the women left, and on the back of a sublime 60, 61 victory over Sara Sorribes Tormo.
This was a very different matchup, with Rogers one of the bigger hitters on tour, but, after a slow start, Raducanu found her groove to storm to victory.
‘‘It feels absolutely amazing to play in front of all of you and Shelby is a great opponent . . . she’s had a great week so I knew it was going to be a tough match,’’ Raducanu said.
Rogers had rallied from 52 down in the third to beat Barty but there was no way back against Raducanu.
‘‘That was pretty embarrassing,’’ Rogers, who had 29 unforced errors to just 14 by her opponent, said.
‘‘It took everything I had to beat Barty. I guess that was a little apparent today.
‘‘The tank was a little bit empty.
Swiss 11th seed Bencic survived a punishing 23minute firstset tiebreaker before advancing to the quarters with a 76 (1412), 63 win over Polish 2020 French Open champion Iga Swiatek.
Czech fourth seed Karolina Pliskova returned to the last eight in New York for the first time since 2018 with a 75, 64 victory over Russian 14th seed Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova.
Pliskova will face 17thseeded Greek Maria Sakkari for a place in the semifinals after the latter beat sixth seed Bianca Andreescu, of Canada, 67(2), 76(6), 63.
In the men’s draw, an outofsorts Novak Djokovic scraped his way to a 16, 63, 62, 62 win over American wildcard Jenson Brooksby to move into the quarterfinals and three wins from tennis immortality.
Chasing a 21st major that would seal a calendar year Grand Slam, Djokovic had difficulty getting into gear against the 99th ranked Brooksby, who for a moment looked capable of derailing the Serb.
For the second consecutive match the world No 1 came out flat and dropped the opening set, something he will not want to do in his quarterfinal when he faces Italian Matteo Berrettini in a rematch of the Wimbledon final which he won in four.
The sixthseeded Italian — who overcame a secondset wobble to beat German qualifier Oscar Otte 64, 36, 63, 62 yesterday — will mark a big step up in quality for Djokovic, who has not faced anyone ranked inside the top 50, including a qualifier and a wildcard.
Olympic gold medalist Alexander Zverev extended his winning run to 15 matches when he beat Jannik Sinner 64, 64, 76 (97), getting a step closer to a maiden slam title.
Zverev started his winning streak in Japan, carried it through to a title in Cincinnati and then kept right on going at Flushing Meadows, where he was the runnerup to Dominic Thiem last year.
‘‘I’m happy where I am, I’m happy with how things are, and I’m happy with how things were the last few months,’’ the fourthseeded German said.
‘‘I’m in the quarterfinals now, and from here on, the matches will definitely not get easier.’’
Zverev said his gold medal is with him in New York, a way to remind himself of his success over the last month.
Zverev will next take on one of the tournament’s many surprise packages in South African Lloyd Harris, who reached a first grand slam quarterfinal with a 67 (68), 64, 61, 63 victory over 22ndseeded Reilly Opelka.
Meanwhile, the doubles run is over for New Zealand’s Erin
Routliffe and her Canadian partner, Leylah Fernandez, at the US Open.
They were yesterday beaten 61, 46, 62 in an hour and 56 minutes by the Romanian pair of Monica Niculescu and Elena Gabriela Ruse.
Routliffe and Fernandez never really got going in the first set and paid the price for low first serve percentages as the hardhitting Romanians broke at will in the first set to take it in 30 minutes.
It looked dire when the Romanians broke again at the start of the second set before Routliffe and Fernandez finally got a foot hold in the match.
For Routliffe, who won her first two matches at a Grand Slam at the US Open, it is a breakthrough performance and will see her ranking climb from 108 at the start of the tournament to around 78, which will be a career high for the 26yearold.
It will ensure she can get into WTA tournaments each week. — BPA/Reuters