Youzhny has done fairly well against Djokovic, winning three of the nine matches he has had against the No. 1 player in the world.
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Top seed Novak Djokovic can not seem to get a match in at the U.S. Open, as the world number one was given another rapid advance when Russian Mikhail Youzhny retired due to a leg injury when trailing 4-2 in the first set on Friday.
The top-ranked Serbian was handed a virtual free pass on Friday, when third-round foe Mikhail Youzhny of Russian Federation retired with a left hamstring injury while trailing 4-2 in the first set. Mikhail Youzhny retired from the match due to injury and Novak Djokovic stepped into the next round.
Jack Sock sent 2014 champion Marin Cilic crashing out at the US Open on Friday.
Thanks to injuries to two opponents, Novak Djokovic did not exactly need to put in much work to reach the U.S. Open’s fourth round for the 10th consecutive year.
After looking almost unbeatable while winning four consecutive major titles, capped by his first at the French Open in June to complete a career Grand Slam, Djokovic has seemed more vulnerable of late.
Djokovic was only on court for 31 minutes at Flushing Meadows, while Nadal was a straight-sets victor over Andrey Kuznetsov. The Russian received treatment from a trainer early, getting his left leg wrapped, and briefly tried to continue.
So after getting what could amount to about 90 hours off, Djokovic will test things against Youzhny, who is now ranked 61st but used to be in the top 10 and was a semifinalist at Flushing Meadows in 2006 and 2010.
“It’s great to be the first player to play with the roof closed, on the competition, because I was the first player to hit in the centre court with the roof closed”, said Nadal, who found “no big difference” on the court with the roof closed. “I’ll take it. I’m moving on and focusing on the next one”.
He didn’t even get to take to the court for his second-round match against Jiri Vesely (who withdrew with an arm injury).
“So I think it’s maybe just searching for something slightly different”. “You can feel that kind of vibe”. “I had a hard time this year”, said the fourth seed.
The owner of 14 Grand Slam trophies, including two at Flushing Meadows, Nadal hadn’t been to the fourth round at any major tournament since the 2015 French Open. “I had this virus which stopped me for quite a while, too much, but I feel good”.
“It’s nice of course to come back but you have a lot of pressure”, said Vinci who was ranked 43 in the world this time past year.
While in 2010 it was an adjustment to his grip that enabled him to hit 130mph serves, this time the Spaniard has shifted his serving position on the ad-court, standing far wider than usual.
The 81st-ranked Osaka was playing in just her third Grand Slam tournament and first U.S. Open, but she made it to the third round at both the Australian and French Opens this year.
He lost in the third round of Wimbledon, exited the Rio de Janeiro Olympics in the first round, this month, then sat out the Cincinnati Masters because of a sore left wrist. But in his first-round victory way back on Monday, he experienced problems with his right arm.
NADAL VS. POUILLE: Rafael Nadal has been playing about as well as can be so far in NY heading into his match against No. 24 Lucas Pouille of France, dropping only 20 games – his lowest total through three matches at the U.S. Open, which he won in 2010 and 2013.
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Serve clocks will be used at the U.S. Open for the first time during junior and college matches. “Everything she was doing was working”, said the 22-year-old who has never made the third round in NY. I’m sure it’s going to be a good tournament’.
