Brady wins, now has bigger order
NEW YORK — Jennifer Brady had one overpowering thought after she lunged and fell to the ground on Court 17 during the third-set tiebreaker of her strenuous match against Romania’s Monica Niculescu on Saturday. “I didn’t want to get up,” said Brady, the former UCLA standout. “I was tired and laying there felt nice.”
After a few seconds’ respite she rose to her feet. Two points later, she had a 6-3, 4-6, 7-6 (3) victory and a berth in the fourth round of the U.S. Open. “Both fun and frustrating,” Brady said of the match, in which she showcased her devastating forehand.
Brady moved on to face world No. 1 Karolina Pliskova. Brady expects to feel awe and a sense of freedom because she has already acquitted herself so well. “At times you kind of come back to reality and are, ‘On paper, I’m not supposed to win this match,’ ” she said. “I’ll just go out there and compete and have fun.”
Naomi Osaka’s run ended in the third round when qualifier Kaia Kanepi of Estonia beat her 6-3, 2-6, 7-5. “I think I was a bit emotionally unstable,” the 19year-old Osaka said. “I think she would be more positive than negative. She didn't have any outbursts or anything, and I had a lot.”
French Open champion Jelena Ostapenko, feeling ill, fell to Daria Kasatkina 6-3, 6-2. “Because the draw was very open, I thought I can play better and better every match,” the Latvian said. “But today I was not feeling very well, so I couldn’t really play my game.”
Lucie Safarova advanced with a straight-sets win over Kurumi Nara and will face No. 20 CoCo Vandeweghe, who outbattled No. 10 Agnieszka Radwanska, 7-5, 4-6, 6-4. No. 4 Elina Svitolina moved on with a 6-4, 7-5 victory over American Shelby Rogers. And No. 15 Madison Keys of the United States outlasted No. 17 Elena Vesnina of Russia 2-6, 6-4, 6-1.
Among the men, Russian Andrey Rublev reached the fourth round with a 6-4, 6-4, 5-7, 6-4 with over Damir Dzumhur of Bosnia-Herzegovina. Rublev will face No. 9 David Goffin, who was up 7-5, 5-1 when No. 18 Gael Monfils retired. No. 6 Dominic Thiem, a straight-sets winner over Adrian Mannarino, will face No. 24 Juan Martin del Potro, who beat
No. 11 Roberto Bau- tista Agut in straight sets.
Dolgopolov under scrutiny
Alexandr Dolgopolov of Ukraine said he has spoken to officials of the Tennis Integrity Unit, which is scrutinizing distinct shifts of betting patterns to heavily against him before his recent match in Winston-Salem, N.C. Dolgopolov lost badly to Thiago Monteiro . “I was the first one to come there and try to give them all the information so they can investigate it faster,” he said Saturday after his straightsets victory over Viktor
Troicki. “They asked me about some information. They interviewed me. That's it. That's all I can do.”
A formal investigation has not begun.
Fognini suspended
The Grand Slam Board suspended Fabio Fognini of Italy from further participation here “pending a final determination whether a major offense has been committed during his first-round singles match,” the board said in a statement. The website ubitennis.net reported Fognini had verbally abused the umpire during that match and was fined $24,000 for three violations. He lost the singles match but had reached the third round in doubles.