The No. 1-ranked Djokovic, who experienced problems with his right arm in the first round and didn’t have to play in the second when his opponent withdrew with an injury, takes on 61st-ranked Mikhail Youzhny in a third-round match in Arthur Ashe Stadium.
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The 21-year-old American was the No. 8 seed – her highest ever at a major – and avoided following No. 3 Garbine Muguruza as a surprising first-week victim.
Serving for the match for the second time at 5-4, Osaka dropped the first two points of the game before rallying to even things at 30-30, but a missed volley at the net with an open court in front of her set up Keys with another break point.
The 31-year-old Cypriot ousted American qualifier Ryan Harrison 6-3, 7-6, 1-6, 6-1 to prevail.
Osaka managed to hold serve in game 12 to send the contest to a tie-breaker. Keys went on to win the next five games, including two breaks, smashing viscous forehands and blistering first serves while limiting her mistakes.
Keys won the opening set, and appeared to be on course for a win which would have delighted the American crowd. “Just to be able to get to the third round here is positive”.
Bellis, the second youngest player in the women’s field, won three qualifying matches and beat two players within the top 65 in the main draw but her dream run ended in a flood of Kerber winners and a rash of errors from the over-hitting teenager. “Been in the top 10 for a long time and had great success at tournaments of all levels and I’m going to have to obviously bring out my best stuff again to have a chance”, said Sock of Tsonga.
Then, in the third set, it was largely one-way traffic at first, Keys making a catalogue of errors as she lost her serve twice to nearly hand the match on a plate to her opponent.
“But it really started freaking me out when she was going 5-2, 5-3, 5-4 those times”. And he handled the Croatian’s big serve just fine, breaking the No. 7-seeded Cilic on four occasions.
Against Cilic, who followed up his title with a semifinal appearance a year ago, Sock won all 14 of his service games, never facing so much as one break point.
For Osaka, however, this was a painful defeat, particularly as she was on the cusp of reaching her first grand slam fourth round.
The pair have never met before at Tour level but Wozniacki has found form in NY, reaching the last 16 of a grand slam for only the second time since the start of 2015.
Wozniacki, who knocked out ninth-seeded former champion Svetlana Kuznetsova in the second round, clinched a seventh win in seven meetings over unorthodox Monica Niculescu of Romania. I think he’s a guy who likes to lean on the ball. The Latvian also made it that far at the 2011 Australian Open, but in May 2013, she retired after a series of injuries.
Three past champions are on the U.S. Open lineup Friday, with Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal and Marin Cilic all seeking to move on to the round of 16.
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Djokovic’s very brief encounter had been preceded on Arthur Ashe Stadium by women’s eighth seed Madison Keys pulling off an epic comeback to beat Japan’s Naomi Osaka.
