Wawrinka, a former Australian and French Open champion, reached a fourth successive quarter-final in NY with a hard-fought 6-4, 6-1, 6-7 (5/7), 6-3 win over Illya Marchenko, the world number 63 from Ukraine. A new venue to be built to replace it.
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There was Connors” name in the same sentence as that of Ivo Karlovic, who at 37 was the oldest player in the fourth round since Connors in “91. At 6-foot-11, Karlovic set a tournament record with 61 aces in a five-set win in the first round. Nishikori will face Andy Murray for a place in the semi-finals.
Former champion Juan Martin del Potro admitted on Monday that he was shocked to be back in the quarter-finals of a Grand Slam for the first time in more than three years.
And the Argentine who hasn’t dropped a set will next face Stan Wawrinka.
After going down a break early in the fourth set, Wawrinka took his frustrations out on his racket.
Meanwhile, hard-hitting Czech Karolina Pliskova toppled two-time champion Venus Williams 4-6, 6-4, 7-6 (7/3) to reach her first major quarter-final.
After three years of being troubled by wrist injury, the Argentinian player reached the quarter-final in NY with a win over Dominic Thiem who could not continue his match due to a knee injury.
Just 15 minutes into the match and Thiem up a break 2-1, it looked like Del Potro might be the player in danger of making an early exit when he called on trainers to work on his right shoulder during the changeover.
Afterwards, Thiem, the eighth seed, explained that he had been carrying a sore knee since his previous match against Pablo Carrena Busta. He returned to the court for one point before deciding he couldn’t go on.
“At the beginning of the match it was basically OK”, he said, “but from the end of the first set, beginning of the second set, it got worse and worse”.
Ultimately, injury took down Thiem, who pulled up short clutching at his knee after trying to run down a del Potro shot midway through the second set.
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. Del Potro was leading 6-3, 3-2 when Thiem quit. Having just turned 23 Saturday, the Austrian logged an ATP-high 69 matches during a breakthrough season that has clearly worn him down.
Del Potro won the championship at Flushing Meadows in 2009 and looks to be heading back to that kind of form, albeit not needing to be at his best against a limping Thiem. 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. “There’s a great connection between the US fans and Argentina fans”, said del Potro who was handed a wildcard at the US Open after winning the silver medal at the Olympics. He played only four matches last year, to Thiem’s 64, and 10 the year before compared with Thiem’s 45.
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Del Potro admitted he was close to retirement a year ago and never thought he’d be back to being a contender so quickly.
