The towering Argentine’s path was made a little easier when Thiem retired with an apparent knee injury trailing 6-3 3-2. After her fourth-round victory Monday, Halep said she “was dreaming” when she was a kid about playing against Williams.
Advertisement
The fourth seed looked to be in cruise control when he opened up a two-set lead for the loss of only five games, but he was sloppy in the third before regaining his rhythm to progress 6-4 6-1 6-7 6-3.
The 24-year-old Pliskova had never been past the third round in 17 previous appearances at majors. He hasn’t advanced to a quarterfinal since Wimbledon in 2013.
Murray closes the night session on Monday protecting a 6-3 head-to-head lead over Dimitrov although the 25-year-old Bulgarian won their last match in Miami in March.
Shvedova did not put Williams under any stress and failed to even register one break chance the entire match against the 22-times grand slam victor.
Suarez Navarro, seeded 11th, was seeking the sixth Grand Slam quarterfinal of her career.
And now, after a balky right knee forced No. 8 Dominic Thiem to retire in the second set of Monday’s match, del Potro was through to the quarters – for the first time since 2012 – to face No. 3 Stan Wawrinka.
Afterwards, Thiem, the eighth seed, explained that he had been carrying a sore knee since his previous match against Pablo Carrena Busta. After falling behind 3-2, he took a medical timeout, came back to the court and lasted just one point before retiring.
After double-faulting twice to fall behind 3-1 in the first set, he stormed back to win five straight games and claim the set and all the momentum. Now it’s 2014 French Open runner-up Halep’s turn to try to deal with the serve of Serena Williams, who reached a tournament-best 126 miles per hour, delivered 11 aces and won 28 of 30 first-serve points against Shvedova. But all those victories came with a cost – a tour-high 69 matches, and the long season had started to wear on his body.
Del Potro has now played 10 matches inside a month, including six at the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.
Initially, it looked like del Potro, who returned to NY ranked No. 142 after recovering from four wrist surgeries, was the player plagued by pain and vulnerable to injury.
With a string of minor titles, the Austrian blew into the top 10 at the age of 22 and couldn’t seem to play enough tennis.
Del Potro, the 2009 champion who was pushed to the brink of retirement earlier this year after undergoing three surgeries on his left wrist, will face either Stan Wawrinka or Illya Marchenko for a semi-final place.
At No. 142, del Potro is the lowest-ranked US Open quarterfinalist since Jimmy Connors in 1991.
Nishikori will play either second seed Andy Murray of Britain or 22nd seed Grigor Dimitrov in the quarter-finals.
Advertisement
Del Potro is expected to meet Wawrinka in the last eight and if he prevails, a rematch looms with Murray in the semifinals.
