The 52nd-ranked Kazakh can take some solace in the fact that she is not the first to struggle against the Williams serve; the 34-year-old has yet to be broken in NY this year, and has faced just one break point in her first four matches, and has not spent more than 68 minutes on court.
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Federer is 307-51 (.858) and can’t increase his total until next season, because he is sitting out the U.S. Open and the rest of 2016 because of problems with his surgically repaired right knee.
Happy to have the discussion of her under-performance on the game’s major stages behind her, she remained wary of a possible quarter-final meeting with fourth-seeded Agnieszka Radwanska.
Although her 36-year-old sibling is active, many of Williams’ contemporaries have come and gone, including Justine Henin and Kim Clijsters, who are both younger, and Martina Hingis, who is only a year older. The second seed looked in control of his third round match against Paolo Lorenzi, despite losing one set.
Hungarian Timea Babos put a scare into Romanian fifth seed Simona Halep, surging back in the second set and taking a 3-1 lead in the third before falling 6-1, 2-6, 6-4. The biggest difference, however, was on the return; the American won half of her return points, while her opponent took just one out of every five on her.
Del Potro knows all about that. They were the last two Americans, women or men, in the tournament’s singles draws.
Del Potro got a huge break Monday when he spent only 72 minutes on court.
At No. 142, del Potro is the lowest-ranked U.S. Open quarterfinalist since Jimmy Connors in 1991.
Serena Williams prepares to serve to Yaroslava Shvedova, of Kazakhstan, during the fourth round of the U.S. Open tennis tournament, Monday, Sept. 5, 2016, in NY.
The 142nd-ranked del Potro has been willed along by fans in NY who fondly remember his 2009 title and respect his comeback from three left wrist surgeries.
The No. 2-seeded Murray, who is hoping to add Flushing Meadows to his Wimbledon and Olympic titles this year, takes on 22-seeded Grigor Dimitrov.
WILLIAMS WATCHING: The Williams sisters play back-to-back in Arthur Ashe Stadium on Monday afternoon.
He next faces eighth-seeded Austrian Dominic Thiem, who celebrated his 23rd birthday with a 1-6, 6-4, 6-4, 7-5 victory over Pablo Carreno Busta of Spain.
Then Serena meets 52nd-ranked Yaroslava Shvedova.
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The 6-4, 6-4 triumph avenged a bitter disappointment for Konjuh, who held three match points against Radwanska in the second round at Wimbledon before falling 9-7 in the third round after stepping on a ball and turning her ankle.
