Las Vegas Review-Journal (Sunday)
Collins catapults into round of 16
19th-seeded American hits winners aplenty; Sinner advances in 4-set victory
NEW YORK — Danielle Collins saved three set points Saturday in the tiebreaker to knock off Alizé Cornet 6-4, 7-6 (11-9) in a match between two players who had eliminated former U.S. Open champions.
Collins defeated two-time U.S. Open champion Naomi Osaka in a straight-sets win in the opening round and Cornet beat defending champion Emma Raducanu in straight sets in the first round.
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The 19th-seeded Collins hit a whopping 52 winners against Cornet and moved on to the round of 16 for the first time in her career to play Aryna Sabalenka.
Sabalenka has three wins over Collins and beat her in last year’s U.S. Open.
Cornet, who played in her Open-era record 63rd straight Grand Slam, had only 17 winners.
In the final match of the day, No. 11 seed Jannik Sinner headed to the fourth round after a 3-6, 6-4, 6-1, 6-2 win over Brandon Nakashima.
Sinner, who has improved his ranking each of the last for years, reached the fourth round for the second straight year. Sinner raced away from Nakashima in a dominant fourth set in a match between two 21-yearolds. Nakashima, though, starred at Virginia and entered the day as one of three remaining former collegiate players. Nakashima did reach the third round in each of the last three majors.
Nakashima went roughly 45 minutes between winning games after he finally made it 4-1 in the fourth. Sinner’s 59th winner of the match was the final one — and only 16 of them were aces. He had 19 forehand winners.
The Italian player moved on to play Ilya Ivashka.
Earlier in the night session at Arthur Ashe Stadium, 22-time major champ Rafael Nadal improved his career mark against Richard Gasquet to 18-0 with a 6-0, 6-1, 7-5 victory. Nadal won the opening nine games and was on his way to improving to 22-0 in Grand Slam matches in 2022.
Nadal did not have stitches or a bandage on his nose, two days after accidentally cutting it with his racket during his previous victory.
“A little bit bgger than usual, but it’s OK,” he said with a smile. “The nose is still there.”
On Monday, Nadal will take on No. 22 Frances Tiafoe, the first American man since Mardy Fish in 2010-12 to get to the U.S. Open’s fourth round in three consecutive years. Tiafoe eliminated No. 14 Diego Schwartzman 7-6 (7), 6-4, 6-4.
In other action Saturday, two-time Australian Open champion Viktoria Azarenka was a 6-3, 6-0 winner against Petra Martic; two-time major runner-up Karolina Pliskova beat Tokyo Olympics gold medalist Belinda Bencic 5-7, 6-4, 6-3; No. 3 Carlos Alcaraz, a 19-year-old Spaniard, defeated unseeded Jenson Brooksby, a 21-year-old Californian, 6-3, 6-3, 6-3; No. 7 Cam Norrie beat No. 28 Holger Rune 7-5, 6-4, 6-1 in the men’s draw; No. 9 Andrey Rublev got past No. 19 Denis Shapovalov 6-4, 2-6, 7-6 (3), 6-4, 7-6 (10-7); and 2014 U.S. Open champion Marin Cilic beat No. 20 Dan Evans 7-6 (11), 6-7 (3); 6-2, 7-5. Upcoming matchups include Azarenka vs. Bencic; Alcaraz vs. Cilic, and Norrie vs. Rublev.
The first major men’s showdown takes place Sunday when defending U.S. Open champion and No. 1 seed Daniil Medvedev plays No. 23 Nick Kyrgios. Kyrgios, the Wimbledon runner-up, and Medvedev play in the night session. Medvedev is trying to became the first repeat champion since Roger Federer won five straight from 2004 to 2008. Medvedev has made at least the semifinals in each of the last three Opens. Kyrgios, who had complained that he was bothered by what he thought was the smell of marijuana during a U.S. Open match this past week, won the most recent match between the two. The big match on the women’s side comes during the afternoon when No. 12 seed Coco Gauff plays Shuai Zhang. Gauff, a French Open finalist this year, is trying to reach the quarterfinals at the U.S. Open for the first time.