Women's US Open draw blown wide open by upsets, men follow form book
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[September 05, 2023]
By Steve Keating
NEW YORK (Reuters) -It was business as usual for the men at the U.S.
Open but manic Monday on the women's side with the draw blown wide
open by upsets that saw contenders Ons Jabeur and Jessica Pegula
join defending champion Iga Swiatek heading through the exit doors.
World number one and defending champion Carlos Alcaraz began the
second week of the season's final Grand Slam flashing a big smile
and superb form as he eased past Italian Matteo Arnaldi 6-3 6-3 6-4
and into the last eight.
The Spaniard was joined by third seed and 2021 winner Daniil
Medvedev, eighth seed Andrey Rublev and 12th seed Alexander Zverev.
"I think the intensity from the beginning until the last ball, I
played a really solid match," said Alcaraz, who is bidding to become
first the man to successfully defend his U.S. Open crown since Roger
Federer in 2008.
While the men kept pretty much to the form book the women's was in
the shredder, the trophy chase turned on its head by 24 hours of
stunning results that started on Sunday evening with Swiatek falling
3-6 6-3 6-1 to Jelena Ostapenko.
When play resumed on Monday so did the upsets.
The first match on Arthur Ashe saw U.S. third seed Jessica Pegula
swept aside by compatriot and 2017 finalist Madison Keys before
Tunisia's 'Minister of Happiness' Jabeur was left a forlorn figure
after falling 6-2 6-4 to China's Zheng Qinwen.
Jabeur had returned to Flushing Meadows bidding to become the first
Arab and African woman to win a major and claim the Grand Slam title
that was denied her at the last two Wimbledon finals and last year's
U.S. Open.
But a respiratory illness has left her struggling to catch her
breath, saying she felt like a "zombie" at times in the tournament,
but bravely battled before simply running out of puff.
Second seed Aryna Sabalenka restored some order at the end of the
day with a clinical 6-1 6-3 win over Russian 13th seed Daria
Kasatkina.
Sabalenka, who will bump Swiatek from top spot in the rankings when
they are updated on Sept. 11, played like a world number one,
needing only 28 minutes to wrap up the opening set and strolling off
Arthur Ashe to applause in just over an hour.
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Sept 4, 2023; Flushing, NY, USA; Madison
Keys of the USA (left) after beating Jessica Pegula of the USA on
day eight of the 2023 U.S. Open tennis tournament at USTA Billie
Jean King National Tennis Center. Mandatory Credit: Robert
Deutsch-USA TODAY Sports
Earlier in the day on Louis Armstrong, Peyton
Stearns of the United States looked set to deliver another shock
when she took the opening set from Wimbledon champion Marketa
Vondrousova but the ninth seeded Czech recovered to register a
6-7(3) 6-3 6-2 win.
Russians Medvedev and Rublev both moved on with workmanlike four-set
wins.
After two late-night matches Medvedev finally finished work 'early'
on Monday, beating Australian Alex de Minaur 2-6 6-4 6-1 6-2 while
Rublev dispatched the last Briton, Jack Draper, 6-3 3-6 6-3 6-4.
The wins set up a fascinating showdown between the two friends,
Rublev the godfather to Medvedev's daughter.
The last match on Arthur Ashe featured sixth-seeded Italian Jannik
Sinner and 12th seeded German Alexander Zverev, which became the
late-night thriller everyone had been predicting.
Played in sweltering conditions, the nearly five-hour marathon
turned into a battle of wills as well as skills, with both players
battling cramp as well as each other.
In the end it was Zverev, the 2020 finalist, who was able to dig
just a little bit deeper to claim a 6-4 3-6 6-2 4-6 6-3 win.
The match was also interrupted when Zverev demanded a spectator be
removed, the German telling the umpire that the fan had yelled "the
most famous Hitler phrase".
After identifying the man security removed him from the stadium.
(Reporting by Shrivathsa Sridhar in Bengaluru; Editing by Ken
Ferris, Peter Rutherford)
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