NEW YORK:
Carlos Alcaraz surged into the fourth spherical of the US Open on Friday as American hopes of ending the nation’s 22-year anticipate a males’s champion suffered a blow with the exits of Ben Shelton and Frances Tiafoe.
Spanish second seed Alcaraz breezed previous Italian thirty second seed Luciano Darderi in emphatic trend, profitable 6-2, 6-4, 6-0 on the Arthur Ashe Stadium.
Alcaraz’s one hour 44-minute victory sends the 2022 US Open champion into a gathering on Sunday towards France’s Arthur Rinderknech, who defeated compatriot Benjamin Bonzi 4-6, 6-3, 6-3, 6-2.
Alcaraz is aiming to complete the season on a excessive after profitable the French Open in June earlier than dropping within the closing of Wimbledon final month.
The five-time Grand Slam singles champion opened play on the Billie Jean King Nationwide Tennis Middle’s principal courtroom, and admitted he had been nervous about his 11:30am native time begin.
“I am not an early morning particular person so it is tough for me to get up within the morning,” Alcaraz mentioned. “One of many good issues in the present day although I wakened early, did the nice and cozy up and felt good.
“Beginning at 11:30 my first purpose is to start out nicely with a superb power and rhythm. I performed nice tennis, good efficiency so I am pleased with that.”
Alcaraz wanted a medical timeout whereas main 5-4 within the second set for therapy on his proper knee, however later mentioned he had no harm issues.
However whereas Alcaraz was capable of shrug off his knee concern, a shoulder harm scuppered Shelton’s hopes of changing into the primary American man to win the US Open since Andy Roddick in 2003.
The massive-serving Shelton, a semi-finalist at Flushing Meadows in 2023, departed the Louis Armstrong Stadium courtroom in tears after being pressured to retire on the finish of the fourth set of his match towards French veteran Adrian Mannarino.
Shelton, 22, was main 6-3, 3-6, 6-4 however clutched his shoulder in ache early within the fourth set and referred to as a medical timeout. He recovered however retired after Mannarino took the fourth set.
“I am not a man who would retire if I may proceed,” mentioned a dejected Shelton.
Shelton’s exit was adopted by compatriot Tiafoe, the seventeenth seed who misplaced 6-4, 6-3, 7-6 (9/7) to German veteran Jan-Lennard Struff.
“I do not know how one can recuperate from this, to be trustworthy with you,” Tiafoe mentioned. “I have not been this down in a really, very very long time.”
Later Friday, Novak Djokovic was dealing with Britain’s Cameron Norrie within the night session, hoping to remain on target for a file twenty fifth Grand Slam singles title.
In different males’s draw motion, Czech twentieth seed Jiri Lehecka sailed into the following spherical with a 6-4, 6-4, 6-4 defeat of Belgium’s Raphael Collignon.
Within the ladies’s draw, in the meantime, world primary and defending champion Aryna Sabalenka faces Canada’s thirty first seed Leylah Fernandez in an evening sport on the Louis Armstrong Stadium.
Fernandez reached the ultimate of the US Open in 2021, the place she was overwhelmed by Britain’s Emma Raducanu — the one participant in historical past ever to win a Grand Slam singles title after rising by means of qualifying.
Raducanu’s hopes of one other fairytale run in New York got here to a juddering halt on Friday when she was steamrollered in straight units by Kazakh ninth seed Elena Rybakina, dropping 6-1, 6-2.
Rybakina will face 2023 Wimbledon champion Marketa Vondrousova within the fourth spherical after the Czech ousted Italian seventh seed Jasmine Paolini 7-6 (7/4), 6-1.
In different ladies’s draw matches, American fourth seed Jessica Pegula comfortably defeated Victoria Azarenka 6-1, 7-5 to achieve the fourth spherical, the place she is going to face compatriot Ann Li.
Belgian nineteenth seed Elise Mertens, a two-time US Open quarter-finalist, in the meantime exited in three units, upset by Spain’s Cristina Bucsa 3-6, 7-5, 6-3.
