After only 14 games, Thiem retired from Monday’s fourth-round match with Juan Martin del Potro with a right knee injury.
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Wawrinka next faces 2009 U.S. Open champ Juan Martin del Potro, who beat him at Wimbledon this year.
Del Potro, the 2009 U.S. Open victor, whose career has been interrupted by a string of wrist surgeries and needed a wild card to get into the year’s last grand slam, has made the most of his opportunity by reaching the last eight without dropping a set.
But he came through unscathed to ensure his quest for a 13th Grand Slam title and third this year remains on track. Flattening a forehand into net, Thiem gifted a second break and a 5-3 lead.
He broke Wawrinka’s serve to set up a tie-break that he won.
At 36-years-old and the oldest remaining player in the draw, Williams battled until the bitter end as her 24-year-old Czech opponent needed five match points and almost two-and-a-half hours in a seething Arthur Ashe Stadium to put away the twice champion. Sometimes it bothers me a little bit but I can deal with that. It’s good to see him playing so well.
After undergoing three wrist operations, which still require around three hours of rehab every day, Del Potro continues to surprise himself reaching the last eight in Flushing Meadows. Murray won 54% of the return points, and even with the fact that he had some troubles on his second serve this was the main reason for his commanding triumph, as Grigor failed to take some free points with his serve, finishing the match with only 2 aces.
The other men’s quarterfinal Wednesday will be second-seeded Andy Murray against No. 6 Kei Nishikori after both posted commanding straight-set wins.
Whereas the shoulder complaint to del Potro ultimately seemed minor, Thiem grimaced while striking a shot and the eighth seed called it quits with a knee injury while trailing 6-3 3-2 on center court. Once Konjuh realized nothing bad was going on, she smiled, then finished off the biggest win of her career. Wawrinka, forced to save a match point in the third round, had less trouble Monday despite a third-set wobble.
Venus Williams failed to convert a match point and lost in the fourth round of the U.S. Open to a player a dozen years younger than her, 10th-seeded Karolina Pliskova of the Czech Republic.
He is still yet to drop a set, after dispatching 11th seed David Ferrer and American Steve Johnson in the earlier rounds, and he will now face either Stan Wawrinka or Ukraine’s Illya Marchenko in the last eight. And I was really sad at home during the last two years when I got injury with my wrist and I was watching on TV. “I learn from this and I just keep going”.
Simona Halep of Romania will be the quarterfinal opponent of Serena Williams, who has yet to lose her serve at this year’s U.S. Open.
Del Potro beat an ailing Dominic Thiem to reach a first grand slam quarterfinal in three years.
Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.
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There was a certain irony in Thiem’s retirement: the 23-year-old’s 69 matches for the year is the most of any player on the Tour, more than twice Del Potro’s 30.
