Andy Murray was the defending champion in 2014 when his 23-year-old opponent swept him out of Wimbledon.
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The 22-time Grand Slam champion began her US Open campaign against 2014 semifinalist Ekaterina Makarova, which could have been a tricky opener for the American, however, Williams passed her toughest test in flying colours with a 6-3, 6-3 victory over the risky lefty.
In later fourth-round matches on a breezy day at the US National Tennis Center, ninth seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga was taking on American 26th seed Jack Sock, and 24th-seeded Lucas Pouille was facing 14-time Grand Slam victor Rafa Nadal.
Shvedova advanced to the round of 16 in NY for the first time by beating Zhang Shuai 6-2, 7-5.
Gael Monfils of France salutes the crowd after his match against Marcos Baghdatis of Cyprus at the 2016 US Open in New York Sunday.
Vinci, 33, will face either second seeded Angelique Kerber of Germany or Petra Kvitova of the Czech Republic for a place in the semifinals.
Yaroslava Shvedova has had a strong start to her campaign in NY with a number of big wins.
Join The Roar for live scores from around 4:30am (AEST) following the completion of Venus Williams and Karolina Pliskova.
Regardless of Dan Evans’ result against Stan Wawrinka, Britain already had three players – Murray, Kyle Edmund and Jo Konta – through to the last 16 of the singles at a Grand Slam for the first time since the 1985 Australian Open.
But this 7-6 5-7 6-2 victory at least created a little bit of national history.
“To be up there with both men and women is something that’s super-rare, and it actually feels good”, said Serena, who said she was “really excited” to reach 307. I was trying to get cheap points, I was going for too much.
World number one Serena Williams has shrugged off fears of a shoulder problem that hampered her performance at the Rio Olympics and the six-time US Open champion has been playing scintillating tennis in NY so far.
While Serena encountered little resistance, it was another story for the top men’s seeds in action. In winning his first two matches here he had doubled his total of victories at Grand Slam tournaments.
World number one Serena Williams has earned a spot in the quarter-finals of the US Open with a straight-sets win over Yaroslava Shvedova at Flushing Meadows in NY. He’s pretty good. So I expected a tough match. “It was a tough battle and I’m happy to get through”.
The second-seeded Murray launched Labor Day weekend working for three hours, 17 minutes to subdue Paolo Lorenzi, 7-6 (4), 5-7, 6-2, 6-3.
“I was making a lot of unforced errors and (Lorenzi) is very solid, and doesn’t give you cheap points”, Murray said.
“When I did play like I was planning on when I went out there, to be more patient, wait for the right balls to go for, you know, played much, much better, dictated more of the points”.
It comes after she was sent packing at Rio during the third round with a straight-sets loss to Elina Svitolina 6-4, 6-3.
Sixth seed Kei Nishikori continued to be a French bogeyman, beating a sluggish Nicolas Mahut 4-6 6-1 6-2 6-2.
When former US Open champion Juan Martin del Potro began his latest comeback in March he said he was playing for fun after three operations on his wrist.
He next faces eighth-seeded Austrian Dominic Thiem, who celebrated his 23rd birthday with a 1-6, 6-4, 6-4, 7-5 victory over Pablo Carreno Busta of Spain.
He advanced to a fourth-round clash with 22nd seed Grigor Dimitrov of Bulgaria, a 6-4 6-1 3-6 6-2 victor over Joao Sousa of Portugal.
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Andy Murray will have to play better if wants to win the US Open but he did enough to make the last 16 with a four-set victory over Italy’s Paolo Lorenzi.
