Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, of France, smiles at the crowd after beating Jack Sock, of the United States, during the fourth round of the U.S. Open tennis tournament, Sunday, Sept. 4, 2016, in NY. “But considering the stage of the season, you know, the amount of matches I’ve played, what I’ve been through with my body, I think it’s actually good to have some days off and then shorter matches – from one side”, Djokovic said. The Frenchman won on his third match point when Sock sent a forehand wildly beyond the sideline and celebrated with a jumping spin and some fist pumps.
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Djokovic had reached the fourth round of the U.S. Open for the 10th consecutive year, but he had played just one complete match to reach the quarters this year.
“I learned a lot from tonight”, Edmund said. Her opponent Tuesday, Anastasija Sevastova, had never won four straight matches at any major until now and was retired for almost two years before returning at the start of last season.
The No. 4-seeded Nadal, a two-time champion at Flushing Meadows, breezed through his opening three matches in Week 1 at the hard-court tournament, dropping only 20 games combined.
Monfils has been advancing this far at the Grand Slams for more than eight years, though he’s still better known for his flair for creative shot-making than his results.
To be fair, Kerber and 14th-seeded Kvitova were handed a tough act to follow with the capacity Arthur Ashe Stadium crowd left buzzing about Frenchman Lucas Pouille’s upset win over Rafael Nadal in a five-set thriller that had an hour earlier closed out the day session.
The ninth seed from France fired 54 winners to oust 26th-seeded Sock, the lone remaining United States man in the field. He recently clinched his second gold medal at the Olympics – something which would have given him much-needed confidence. “I really wanted to start the match well today because I didn’t have much time on the court overall before the fourth round”, he added. The Serb, who had won their only other meeting 6-3, 6-3 at Miami earlier this year, was ruthlessly efficient; he was as frighteningly flexible on defense as ever, sliding and stretching and returning everything.
While he is still the favourite to win the last Grand Slam of the year, considering his struggle in the last few months, this is certainly Murray’s best chance to add another major trophy to his cabinet.
Monfils also reached the Open quarterfinals in 2010 and 2014.
But the 29-year-old Serb, a 12-time Grand Slam victor, argued the extra recovery could be beneficial.
Against Tsonga he mustered only five aces and was broken six times by the 2008 Australian Open runner-up, who has reached at least the semifinals of every Grand Slam except this one.
She returned to the professional game in January previous year and is now looking for her second scalp of the fortnight after seeing off third seed Garbine Muguruza in round two.
The seventh-seeded Italian beat 99th-ranked Lesia Tsurenko 7-6 (5), 6-2 on Sunday.
Roberta Vinci, last year’s U.S. Open runner-up, is back in the quarterfinals.
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However, he was out-classed by the world no.1, being dispatched 6-2, 6-1, 6-4 as Djokovic searches for his 13th grand slam title.
