Azarenka, Wawrinka back in quarterfinals; Murray out
NEW YORK — Victoria Azarenka and Stan Wawrinka, both two-time Grand Slam champions, are making trips to the U.S. Open quarterfinals an annual affair.
Their experience showed Monday against less-experienced American opponents.
Azarenka, whose ranking is down to 20th after two injury-plagued seasons, is starting to look like the player who took Serena Williams to three sets in the final at Flushing Meadows in 2012 and ’13. On Monday, she won 6-3, 6-4 over 46th-ranked American Varvara Lepchenko, who had reached her first U.S. Open round of 16.
“My game was not really a problem. It was just being able to find your rhythm and find the way to apply that game on the certain moments in the tough situations,” Azarenka said. “So I think that was more of I wouldn’t say mental, but just more of a consistency.”
Wawrinka had a few more tense moments against another American who has never been past the fourth round at a major.
Donald Young had come from behind in his three previous matches, twice rallying from down two sets, but Wawrinka’s power and poise never gave him much of a chance. The fifth-seeded Wawrinka won 6-4, 1-6, 6-3, 6-4, taking control in the final two sets behind his bigger serve.
Wawrinka next faces Kevin Anderson, who eliminated Andy Murray on Monday night. The third-seeded Murray lost before the quarterfinals at a major for the first time since 2010, beaten 7-6 (5), 6-3, 6-7 (2), 7-6 (0) by 15thseeded Anderson.
“Disappointing to lose because of that,” Murray said about his earlierthan-usual exit. “Obviously that’s many years’ work Victoria Azarenka is in the quarterfinals of the U.S. Open after her victory over Varvara Lepchenko of the U.S. Azarenka next will meet second-seeded Simona Halep. that’s gone into building that sort of consistency.”
Young, currently ranked 68th, upset Wawrinka in five sets in the second round of the 2011 U.S. Open. But Wawrinka has improved, winning the 2014 Australian Open and this year’s French Open.
His signature backhand deserted him at times Monday and he smashed a racket after getting broken for the first time in the second set. But he faced just two break points in the final two sets, both when he was already up 5-1 in the third.
“I start the third set really right again,” Wawrinka said. “I was physically there trying to play again more aggressive the way I start the match.”
For the 6-foot-8 Anderson, the victory over Murray was a breakthrough: He entered with an 0-7 record in fourth-round matches at majors, including when he had a twoset lead against Novak Djokovic before losing at Wimbledon two months ago.
This time, Anderson held it together, with the help of 25 aces and 81 total winners.
“I’m a little lost for words right now,” the 29-year-old Anderson said. “I just managed to keep my composure throughout.”
Murray kept trying to fire up himself and his backers as the fourth set carried on, even reaching over to slap the extended palm of a front-row spectator.
“I was trying to use the energy of the crowd as much as I could to help me,” Murray said.
Anderson limited his emotions to one uppercut after taking one point with a sky-hook winner from the baseline.
And he was perfect at the end, hitting one ace at 135 mph, another at 138 mph, while Murray couldn’t get his strokes to land in the right spots.
“I wish,” Anderson said, “I could play every tiebreak like that.”
Azarenka, meanwhile, next will play secondseeded Simona Halep, who had never been to a U.S. Open quarterfinal but does know how it feels to play deep into a major — she lost the 2014 French Open final.
Halep gritted out a three-set victory over Sabine Lisicki, the 2013 Wimbledon runner-up. She won 6-7 (6), 7-5, 6-2 in 2 hours, 38 minutes.