- Live updates from the fourth round at Flushing Meadows
- Match report: Williams hits top gear to deny Sakkari
- Line judge hit by Djokovic receives abuse on social media
- Drop Simon an email or tweet @Simon_Burnton
Berrettini’s forehand is really very fine, or at least potentially very fine. He pulls out a couple of crackers in the first game of the third set, both at deuce, and with their help holds.
Over on Court 17 Melichar/Xu have just wrapped up the first set of their women’s doubles quarter-final 6-2. They’re 18-8 up on winners, have conceded only one break point and in terms of stats and indeed points seem markedly superior. They are third seeds after all. Xu’s best Grand Slam was at Wimbledon last year, when she and Gabriela Dabrowski reached the final but lost; Melichar’s best Grand Slam was at Wimbledon two years ago, when she and Kveta Peschke reached the final but lost.
Rublev has wrapped up the second set to level things up at 4-6, 6-3 against Berrettini. The winner, incidentally, will play whoever emerges from tonight’s Tiafoe-Medvedev encounter.
If you’ve been following the ongoing second-serve troubles of Andrey Rublev you may be pleased to know that he’s upped his game in the second set. He’s won 67% of the points he’s played on second serve (which have been many, as his first serve percentage has dipped to 43%), and is now serving for the set at 5-3.
Apparently Berrettini has saved 11 break points in this tournament, while never once being broken. Or rather, he had. He’s just netted a drop-shot on break point, given Rublev the second-set advantage and it’s 6-4, 1-3.
News just in: Jean-Julien Rojer and Horia Tecau have wrapped up victory over Rohan Bopanna and Denis Shapovalov in their doubles quarter-final by the score of 7-5, 7-5. The day’s last doubles match, between Nicole Melichar/Yi Fan Xu and Hayley Carter/Luisa Stefani, is about to get under way.
The good news is that Rublev improved to eventually win 20% of all points on his second serve. The bad news is he has lost the first set to Berrettini, 6-4. The four double faults didn’t help. Strangely, given all of that, Rublev did not hit more unforced errors (if you don’t count his own serve) – they were tied 12-12 on that metric.
So far Berrettini has a 53% first-serve percentage but has won six of eight points on second serve. Rublev has a 59% first-serve percentage, but has not won any of 11 points on second serve. Not a single one.
Over then to Armstrong, where Berrettini has already broken, and thus leads 3-1 in the first set. The only other game currently ongoing is on Court 17, where Jean-Julien Rojer and Horia Tecau lead Rohan Bopanna and Denis Shapovalov 7-5, 4-3 (on serve) in their men’s doubles quarter-final.
Thiem has a chat:
The first set was very important, for sure. I was really nervous before the match. I knew I was going to play an amazing opponent. I had a chance to serve for the first set, missed it pretty poorly. But sets two and three were 100% the best sets of the tournament for me. I just beat an upcoming superstar. I’ve started to have a great feeling. Sets two and three I was starting to find the mixture again that I had last time in Australia I guess, of offence and defence, really not missing a lot, putting a lot of returns in play. It was my best match so far, I’ll try to keep my form for the next one.
I focus only on myself and try to look from match to match, and at the end for myself and also for the other remaining players it doesn’t matter at all if the big three are still here or not. Everybody just wants their hands on the trophy and it doesn’t matter who they’re going to beat.
I’m probably one of the oldest players left in the field, which is surreal to me. It’s the same with him [as Auger-Aliassime], an absolute superstar up and coming. I’ll try to play out my experience, prepare well, take all the positive things from this match and hopefully continue like that.
And that’s that. Thiem has set some very high standards here, pure aggression, brutality and precision, and Felix Auger-Aliassime had no answers. The match is won with a phenomenal backhand down the line, and though it looks like the 20-year-old Canadian folded, and it’s true that he was unable to sustain his first-set form, he just didn’t have the shots or the nous to live with his opponent today. His time will (may) come.
And that, surely, is curtains for Auger-Aliassime, who has just been broken to love and is 6-7, 1-6, 1-4 and two third-set breaks down to Dominic Thiem.
Thiem has broken Auger-Aliassime in the first game of the third set, and the 20-year-old Canadian is in very deep trouble now. Indeed, his trouble has just got a little deeper as Thiem has held to 15, making it 7-6, 6-1, 2-0 on Arthur Ashe.
Next up on Armstrong is Matteo Berrettini, the Italian sixth seed, against Russia’s No10 seed Andrey Rublev. As it happens the pair met at the same stage of last year’s US Open, with Berrettini winning. The Italian is 3-1 up in the head-to-head, and every match has been won in straight sets.
Meanwhile on Ashe Dominic Thiem has made short work of set two, having just held serve to love to wrap it up. He now leads 7-6, 6-1.
Tsvetana Pironkova has only once got past the quarter-finals of a Grand Slam and that was at Wimbledon a decade ago, when she made the semis. This is her first tournament in three years, an extraordinary time to be reaching new peaks. This is what she says after beating Cornet:
Well, it’s absolutely unreal, I really can’t believe it. I was so exhausted by the end of the match that I really didn’t believe I had it in me but I just kept fighting and fighting and thankfully it paid off. I changed my strategy a little bit, I tried to be more aggressive because I wouldn’t be able to run for 10 minutes every point. I played Serena a few times. She’s a great champion and it’s always an honour to play against her and I’m looking forward to playing against her. But really now I’m looking forward to taking a long bath and having a massage.
I haven’t seen [my son]in two weeks and it’s very tough. It gets tougher every day. But I know he’s watching me, I know he’s proud of me.
From the moment I said she was fading Tsvetana Pironkova turned on the power, and finally she holds to love and has seen off her French opponent 6-4, 6-7, 6-3!
Pironkova’s only gone and broken again! She’s 5-3 up in the third and about to serve for the match, and the chance to play Serena Williams in the quarter-finals.
“Isn’t tennis better without the crowd?” ponders Gary Naylor. “No endlessly tedious cutaways to the Players’ Box and gfs and bfs screaming ‘C’mon!’ regardless of the state of play. Best of all, no ultra-irritating clapping and ‘Ooohs’ as the reviews are screened.” This is all true, and it was interesting to hear Serena admit that she’s missing the extra moments of recovery she gets when there’s a crowd and she gets to wait for them to quieten down before starting play. On the other hand, a liveblogger is much less likely to spot something vaguely comic happening off-court when nothing at all is happening off-court.
Thiem stands so deep that sometimes he’s unable to get forward to kill points when they’re there for him to take. That’s what happens here at deuce, but then when Auger-Aliassime decides to come to the net himself he hits an excellent shot that dips into the Canadian’s ankles and he can’t get back. It’s now 3-0 in the second.
Auger-Aliassime double-faults at deuce to put himself into trouble, and a forehand whipped wide seals his fate. Thiem breaks and is 2-0 up in the second set.
And to be even fairer, the extent to which Pironkova is in fact fading might have been overstated. She’s just broken back to level it at 2-2.
To be fair, Cornet has a heavily strapped right thigh. She, however, doesn’t seem to be fading.
On Armstrong, Pironkova has a heavily strapped left thigh and seems to be fading. Alize Cornet is now a break up in the third set, leading 2-1.
Thiem v Auger-Aliassime has gone to a tiebreak in the first set, and it’s the No2 seed who seals it 7-4. The young Canadian will have his work out to get back into this one after that early setback.
Now then. Thiem is serving for the first set but Auger-Aliassime shows plenty of guts to seal the break on his first attempt at 15-40 and we’re back on serve at 5-5. Talking of comebacks: Cornet has levelled her match against Pironkova, who was serving for the match not too long ago. They are now heading into the third set.
Cornet and Pironkova are in a tiebreak in the second as their match inches past the two-hour mark. The Bulgarian had served for the match not long ago.
Thiem now has a 5-3 lead in the first set. He’s taking advantage of some sloppy play from Auger-Aliassime who has now hit 17 unforced errors.
The lineswoman who was hit in the throat by a ball from Novak Djokovic, leading to his ejection from the US Open, may return to work by the end of the event. The line umpire has faced abuse on social media since their encounter and she is being monitored by the tournament doctor in her hotel.
The United States Tennis Association also confirmed Djokovic has been fined $10,000 in addition to forfeiting his $250,000 (£190,000 prize money. He was defaulted on Sunday after firing a ball in frustration in his fourth‑round match against Pablo Carreño Busta following the loss of his serve at 5-6 in the first set, which accidentally struck the line umpire’s neck, causing her to fall to the ground.
Thiem breaks Auger-Aliassime on his fifth attempt and now has a 3-2 lead and is serving to seal the break.
Now it’s Thiem’s turn to save break points as he battles through a shaky game to level the scores at 2-2 in the first. Tsvetana Pironkova has turned round the second set against Alize Cornet, breaking twice. She’s now serving for the match at 5-4.
Auger-Aliassime’s service game goes to deuce again before he holds. He’s sent down two aces already but also committed eight unforced errors, leading to four break points for Thiem, none of which he has managed to convert. Anyway, we’re still on serve at 2-1 in the first.
A marathon game to start Thiem and Auger-Aliassime’s match with the Canadian taking seven minutes – and plenty of deuces – to seal his opening service game. Thiem takes slightly less time to hold – and it’s 1-1.
Alize Cornet looked in plenty of trouble against Tsvetana Pironkova when she found herself a set and 0-2 down, but she’s reeled off four games in a row and is now 4-2 up in the second. If Cornet does win this one, it will be her first grand slam quarter-final in a very respectable career.
Auger-Aliassime and Thiem are now warming up ahead of a mouthwatering tie on Ashe. The winner will play Australia’s Alex de Minaur, who beat Auger-Aliassime’s fellow Canadian Vasek Popisil an hour or so ago.
“Felix is a great player. No real weaknesses. Great to watch. Great athlete, great person,” said Thiem before today’s match. “The only thing that he’s missing is the experience. That’s what I’m trying to play for my advantage. It’s not my first second week at a grand slam, but it is his. That’s probably my biggest advantage what I have in this match.”
In the quarter-finals Serena Williams will play the winner of the match between Alize Cornet and Tsvetana Pironkova, which is currently in progress on Armstrong. Pironkova is 6-4, 2-0 up, and looks all set. She and Serena haven’t played since 2015 (Pironkova has just come back from a three-year parenthood break), with the American 4-0 up on the head-to-head.
It’s Serena’s 100th win on Arthur Ashe, and takes her to a 53rd Slam quarter-final. This is what she says about it:
I don’t think about it [records]. It’s like we’re just playing, and having fun. Of course I thought about it a little, but it’s a completely different match and a completely different scenario. I just kept fighting. She was doing so well, being so aggressive, and I knew I needed to do the same thing. It’s definitely less pressure [with no fans]. I miss the fans but this is different. It’s different because the breaks are a little longer with the fans here, the clapping makes the breaks longer and I can use a little bit of that.
3rd set: Williams* 6-3, 6-7, 6-3 Sakkari Serena has done poorly at the net today, and at 15-0 Sakkari tempts her forwards and then lashes her pass crosscourt. But that’s where the good news ends for her. A few moments later Serena has two match points; the first is saved with a forehand winner, but Serena wins the second!
3rd set: Williams 6-3, 6-7, 5-3 Sakkari* Serena wins the first point with an excellent forehand, the second when Sakkari nets one of her own, and the third with the most vicious of crosscourt backhand service return winners. Three break points. Serena overhits a backhand. Sakkari comes to the net to volley a winner. And then she floats a weak backhand into the net, and Serena will serve for the match!
3rd set: Williams* 6-3, 6-7, 4-3 Sakkari At 30-30, and after Sakkari had on the previous point with an excellent, short-backswing backhand, Serena conjures an ace. A long backhand later, she noses ahead once again.
3rd set: Williams 6-3, 6-7, 3-3 Sakkari* A really excellent service game from Sakkari, one entirely out of keeping with the last 45 minutes’ action. There’s a fantastic forehand, almost lazily swatted away, and a couple of service winners including an ace to seal it.
3rd set: Williams* 6-3, 6-7, 3-2 Sakkari A key shot at 30-0, when Serena hits a crosscourt backhand that isn’t quite good enough. She has to predict where Sakkari’s going to hit her own backhand, guesses right, but the shot’s so good she loses anyway. Serena holds all the same.
3rd set: Williams 6-3, 6-7, 2-2 Sakkari* There’s a sublime backhand return here from Serena, which keeps Sakkari on her toes while simultaneously almost destroying them. A few moments later it’s 30-40, a chance for Serena to get back on level terms. There follow two net cords. The first loops perfectly into the corner for a winner to make it deuce, the second loops wide to give Sakkari advantage. Coming so close together they seem particularly cruel, but Serena doesn’t dwell on her misfortune, and within moments she’s pummelling another forehand across court for a clean winner to level at 2-2.
In other news, there’s a minor delay at 30-15 after a ball boy spots something on the court that shouldn’t be there. It looks very much like a red chocolate m&m. I don’t really understand how that got there. Did someone throw it? Who? There’s only about 15 people in the arena who aren’t playing. Is the umpire surreptitiously snacking?
3rd set: Williams* 6-3, 6-7, 1-2 Sakkari A great point here, as Sakkari forces Serena out wide before playing to the other side; the Amertican races across to somehow return the shot, and Sakkari then fractionally overhits what should have been a wrong-footing winner. That’s at 15-15; Serena holds to 15.
3rd set: Williams 6-3, 6-7, 0-2 Sakkari* Sakari holds to 30, with a double fault along the way. I must admit to spending most of the game searching our photo wires for pictures of sweaty ball people, but this is a topic that has gone scandalously uncovered. Here’s a report on Alex de Minaur’s straight-sets win over Vasek Pospisil:
Related: Alex de Minaur blows away Vasek Pospisil to reach US Open quarter-final
3rd set: Williams* 6-3, 6-7, 0-1 Sakkari And so we go again, and Serena immediately stumbles! Sakkari wins her fifth break point of the match with a crosscourt pass, and for the first time she converts as Serena hits long.
2nd set: Williams 6-3, 6-7 Sakkari Sakkari sprints into a 3-0 lead, with a fantastic return forcing the error to take the third of those points. Serena nets a backhand to make it 4-0, but gets a foothold in the game with a fabulous down-the-line backhand return. At 4-2 Serena seems to mishit a backhand – perhaps the racket slipped in her hand – and it lands midcourt, but Sakkari fluffs her chance to put it away.
So it might have been a bit easier. Nothing about this set is straightforward though. Sakkari goes to 6-4 with two set points; the first is saved with a vicious killer crosscourt forehand but the second is on the Greek’s own serve. This is her chance. She overhits the first serve, and the second is thrashed straight back past her by Serena, a backhand this time.
2nd set: Williams* 6-3, 6-6 Sakkari At 15-15, having just lost a point to a fabulous backhand, Serena comes to the net but too slowly, Sakkari hits the ball at her ankles and she can’t get it back. It’s a glimpse of light. Serena wins the next point, but then Sakkari gets the luckiest of breaks, the ball looping off the net cord and plopping a couple of inches over the net. Serena screams in anguish; Sakkari has a set point. It’s saved, but an unforced error gifts Sakkari another. This time Serena’s first serve is too good – a bit of a rarity, in a game with a couple of wild ones and a set in which Serena’s first-serve percentage is plummeting, now at 55% (and that only because she wins the game with an ace). This set will be decided on a tie-break.
2nd set: Williams 6-3, 5-6 Sakkari* Serena is so hard to live with, and Sakkari is doing extremely well not just to find the occasional foothold in this match but to actually be standing pretty firm. The 38-year-old powers her way to a couple of points, but the Greek is finding excellent angles and when Serena eventually overhits a backhand seals a hold to 30.
2nd set: Williams* 6-3, 5-5 Sakkari Serena thunders into a 40-0 lead, and would have won it there but for a net cord, which loops up to buy Sakkari a bit of extra time. No matter, because her next serve is unreturnable. The people really struggling through all this are the ball boys and ball girls, whose grey T-shirts seem to show every drop of sweat. There are quite a few sweat-stained ball-people on Arthur Ashe at the moment, but none of them are players.
2nd set: Williams 6-3, 4-5 Sakkari* It’s heating up rather nicely here, as Sakkari holds to 15 to keep the pressure on. Meanwhile it’s all over on Armstrong, where Alex De Minaur has beaten Vasek Pospisil 7-6, 6-3, 6-2, and looks to have played very impressively in the process.
2nd set: Williams* 6-3, 4-4 Sakkari Serena goes 40-0 up, at which point she serves her first double fault of the match, and then after another missed first serve she nets a backhand. Sakkari can’t get her next serve back into play, though, so it’s a hold to 30.
2nd set: Williams 6-3, 3-4 Sakkari* There is one genuinely remarkable shot here. Sakkari takes a 40-0 lead but then horribly mishits a backhand and then misses a first serve. Williams absolutely pounds the second serve back towards the server’s ankles, roaring as she does so, and Sakkari is barely able to move her racked before it’s past her. It’s a shot of awesome quality and all-round viciousness, but she barely does anything right in the next couple of points, and Sakkari eventually secures the hold.
2nd set: Williams* 6-3, 3-3 Sakkari At 30-30 Serena hits a second serve out wide, and Sakkari sends it into the net. But at 40-30 the ball takes an odd bounce, leading to Serena swishing her racket through air as it skews past her. No matter, a service winner and an ace later, it’s 3-3. Out on Court 17 Murray & Skupsi emphatically lost the first set of their men’s doubles quarter-final 6-2 but appear to have settled, and lead the second set 2-1 (on serve)
2nd set: Williams 6-3, 2-3 Sakkari* A hold to 15 for Sakkari, who greets Serena’s final shot nestling in the net with a full-throttle roar. Her own serve has been remarkably consistent: 66% first-serve percentage in set one, 63% in set two.
2nd set: Williams* 6-3, 2-2 Sakkari Serena’s first-serve percentage has shot up from 46% in set one to 64% in set two, and even when she misses she wins two points in this game with high, kicking second-serves that reach Sakkari at shoulder height and are hit down into the net.
2nd set: Williams 6-3, 1-2 Sakkari* Sakkari can’t get away here, and from 15-0 and 40-0 Serena pushes her to deuce and proceeds to take control of the next point, but with the opportunity to win it she goes the wrong way, hits straight to Sakkari and as an added bonus hits long, and a service winner later she goes a nose ahead in set two.
2nd set: Williams* 6-3, 1-1 Sakkari Balanced on a knife-edge now. Meanwhile on Armstrong Pospisil wins an epic service game, the first game of the third set, but then loses his next service game to love and is 1-2 down in the third, and two sets down.
2nd set: Williams 6-3, 0-1 Sakkari* It didn’t take long for Sakkari to regroup. There’s an excellent wrongfooting crosscourt backhand here, another down the line that clips the back of the line to make it 40-15, and a second-serve ace to win it from there.
1st set: Williams* 6-3 Sakkari Serena wins the first point with a forehand of great power and immaculate precision, follows that with an ace out wide, and the Greek realises this set is probably not going to go her way. It ends with another ace, down the middle this time. On Armstrong, De Minaur wins the second set and now has a firm grip on his match, leading Pospisil as he does 7-6, 6-3.
1st set: Williams 5-3 Sakkari* Having said that, Sakkari holds to love. Elsewhere the all-British duo of Jamie Murray and Neal Skupski and playing their men’s doubles quarter-final on Court 17, and it’s fair to stay that it has started pretty badly for them. They’ve been broken twice already by Mate Pavic and Bruno Soares and it’s 0-3 in the first set.
1st set: Williams* 5-2 Sakkari Serena is going through the gears here, now has the pedal to the metal and Sakkari seems to be struggling to keep up. She holds to 15.
1st set: Williams 4-2 Sakkari* Serena breaks! Sakkari has hit five aces already, but her star shot here is a backhand down-the-line pass that Serena gets a racket to but can’t return (to be fair, she only needed to pass because of a ropey drop shot). What’s for sure is that after the opening skirmishes both players have got out their cannons, and Serena blasts her way to a break point of her own here, overhits her next return to give it up, but fights her way to another and another one after that, and it’s this third opportunity that she grasps, forcing an error with a vicious crosscourt forehand!
1st set: Williams* 3-2 Sakkari Well that certainly wasn’t a straightforward hold. Sakkari rips into a 0-40 lead, whereupon she overhits a forehand, nets another forehand, fails to return a strong serve down the middle, fails to return another strong serve down the middle, and overhits another forehand. The statisticians mark two of those down as unforced errors. On Louis Armstrong De Minaur has broken in the second set and leads 7-6, 3-1.
1st set: Williams 2-2 Sakkari* Another straightforward hold. In her first two service games Sakkari has won 100% of points on second serve (two), as well as 86% on first serve.
1st set: Williams* 2-1 Sakkari Serena holds to 15, and it feels like the battle has not really started. Elsewhere Taylor Townsend and Asia Muhammad are into the semi-finals of the women’s doubles, after beating Gabriela Dabrowski and Alison Riske 6-4, 6-2.
1st set: Williams 1-1 Sakkari* There’s some vicious and pinpoint serving here from Maria Sakkari, who hits three aces on her way to holding to love.
1st set: Williams* 1-0 Sakkari There’s a minor scare at 15-30, saved with an ace, and a slog at 30-30 until a long rally ends with Sakkari netting, but Serena is on the board.
Serena is on court and warming up. We should get under way in a couple of minutes.
Alex de Minaur takes the lead against Pospisil, winning the last six points on the spin to steal the first-set tie-break 8-6!
Pospisil canters to a 6-2 lead over De Minaur in the first-set tie-break, and then wobbles: as I type it’s 6-6.
The Pospisil-De Minaur match is pretty good, if you happen to be near a broadcasting service. The Australian hit a killer backhand in the last game, and Pospisil has just taken vicious forehand revenge and gone 6-5 up in the first set. Sadly I am about to have to leave it to switch my focus to Serena Williams.
Asia Muhammad and Taylor Townsend have won the first set of their doubles quarter-final on Court 17, and have broken in the first game of the second.
Pospisil has just received a time violation warning for a vary marginal delay. He didn’t seem very chuffed about it, and it led to more wasted time as he grumbled.
So there are a couple of matches ongoing, the women’s doubles quarter-final on Court 17 involving three Americans and a Canadian, and another Canadian in the fourth round of the men’s singles in Vasek Pospisil, who is seven games into his fourth-round match against the Australian Alex De Minaur and leads 4-3, on serve.
Welcome! Today Serena Williams’ quest for a 24th Grand Slam continues as she and Sofia Kenin try to join their fellow Americans Jennifer Brady and Shelby Rogers in the quarter-finals. Williams plays the No15 seed, Maria Sakkari of Greece, in the first match on Ashe while Kenin faces the No16 seed, Elise Mertens of Belgium, in the last. Elsewhere Victoria Azarenka looks to continue her resurgence since the tour resumed from the pandemic in a competition in which she has twice reached the final, losing to Serena in three sets in both 2012 and 2013. With Novak Djokovic gone from the men’s draw, the No2 seed, Dominic Thiem, and No3, Daniil Medvedev – last year’s runner-up to Rafael Nadal – have a clearer path to the title, though both are in the other half of the draw so don’t stand to make an immediate benefit. Here’s today’s order of play:
