2 days ago
10
Key events Show key events only Please turn on JavaScript to use this feature
Pegula is still bossing it on Ashe, leading 6-1, 3-1. And a glance through today’s early results brings up the name “Hewitt”. It’s not the 2001 champion Lleyton, however, but his 16-year-old son Cruz, who’s suffered a 6-3, 6-0 defeat in the first round of the boys’ singles to the American fourth seed Benjamin Willwerth. Lleyton was in the stands watching.
Mannarino, who benefitted from Ben Shelton’s unfortunate retirement in the previous round, has taken Lehecka to a tie-break. Mannarino is in the early ascendancy, moving to 4-1, before Lehecka comes back for 4-4 with some gusty net play. Make that 5-4 Lehecka and then 6-4 when Mannarino misses an absolute gimme of a backhand! Lehecka takes his sixth point on the spin and that’s the set.
Li does get her side of the scoreboard going, breaking to reduce her deficit to 3-1, but Pegula locks straight back in to restore her double break before holding to 15. Only 23 minutes in, it’s very hard to see how Li can find a way back. Her second serve is batting practice for Pegula, who’s won all 10 of those points, make that 11. And in no time at all it’s 15-40, two set points. Pegula nets on the first and Li messes up her slice on the set. Pegula rattles through the first set 6-1.
Lehecka, meanwhile, has got a second set point in the opener against Mannarino, leading 5-4 and at advantage on Mannarino’s serve. Mannarino shows unrelenting resolve to save it. This match represents a big opportunity for these two left-handers, despite being at very different stages of their careers. The 37-year-old Frenchman Mannarino, in his 15th US Open, and the 23-year-old Czech Lehecka are both attempting to reach the last eight for the first time. Mannarino fends off a third set point before holding after six deuces. It’s 5-5.
The support, it has to be said, for each player is fairly muted in the opening exchanges, because the stands are nowhere near full, unlike for Coco Gauff’s early match yesterday. Pegula is locked in from the off, breaking to 15 in the opening game, before holding to love and then breaking from deuce when she treats a second serve with utter disdain by battering a backhand winner. Li is already glancing up at her box looking for answers.
Pegula and Li have made their entrance. Amid all the aforementioned fury in New York, Pegula, as always, has been quietly going about her business, and last year’s finalist enters this round-of-16 match yet to drop a set. I don’t know that much about Li, I must admit, but the 25-year-old has been making decent progress this year and recently reached a WTA 250 final in Cleveland. But this is her first time on Ashe – how will she handle the occasion? At least she knows the crowd won’t be against her – though which American will shade the support?
And here’s what happened yesterday, if you need to catch up:
Tumaini’s written a good piece on all the player rage:
Daniel Altmaier had nothing more to say. Moments after one of the biggest wins of his career, the German unwittingly found himself on the receiving end of Stefanos Tsitsipas’s ire during their handshake at the net. Before Tsitsipas could finish, though, Altmaier had walked away from the net and he refused to engage in the Greek’s attempts to argue with him.
Altmaier shrugs at the first mention of the incident: “Even if I would have lost, I would not enter discussions because it’s just like heat of the moment. You need to cool down; let’s see if he reacts to it or he sticks to his opinion while cooling down on an exercise bike in the player gym late at night.”
Although Altmaier had the wherewithal to think clearly in the heat of battle, the same cannot be said for many other players in New York over the past week, a tournament that has been dominated by outbursts of anger and frustration from players. “Lots of drama,” says Jessica Pegula, laughing. “I don’t know. My matches have been pretty no drama, so I’m not really sure what’s going on with everybody else. I don’t know. It’s just that New York City tends to bring out just a lot of drama, I guess.”
In hindsight, the Daniil Medvedev show on the first night of the tournament was a sign of things to come as he lambasted the umpire before inciting the Louis Armstrong Stadium audience into a six-minute protest while Benjamin Bonzi held match point in their first round match. Although that incident sparked a dramatic comeback, Medvedev lost in five unforgettable sets.
Then, after crashing out of the tournament in a second round loss to Taylor Townsend, Jelena Ostapenko crashed out on the court. Townsend later said Ostapenko’s heated comments towards her had included the Latvian accusing her of having “no education” and “no class”. Tsitsipas, who was apparently frustrated by Altmaier’s successful underarm serve in their second round match, tried to send his opponent a message after the match: “Next time, don’t wonder why I hit you, OK? No, I’m just saying if you serve underarm…” he said, his voice trailing off. By that time, Altmaier had removed himself from the conversation.
You can read the rest here.
Preamble
Hello! And welcome to today’s coverage of the US Open, as we hit the midway point in the final slam of the year. Despite all the noise and chaos over the past week in New York – including Daniil Medvedev’s mighty meltdown, Jelena Ostapenko’s ugly comments towards Taylor Townsend (for which Ostapenko has finally apologised), Stefanos Tsitsipas’s underarm serve fury and seven injury retirements on the men’s side – there’s a slight sense of calm at the start of day eight, with only six fourth-round singles matches in the day session.
Starting on Arthur Ashe in a few minutes it’s the all-American encounter between last year’s runner-up Jessica Pegula and Ann Li, followed by the man of the tournament so far, Carlos Alcaraz, against France’s Arthur Rinderknech. Play on Louis Armstrong is already under way, with Adrian Mannarino and Jiri Lehecka fighting for a place in their first US Open quarter-final. Then it’s the two Taylors – Townsend takes on the 2024 Wimbledon winner Barbora Krejcikova and Fritz faces the Czech Tomas Machac – before Aryna Sabalenka (last but certainly not least as the defending champion) rounds things off against Spain’s Cristina Bucsa. Let’s hope, for Laura Robson’s sake at least, there isn’t another marriage proposal in Sabalenka’s match. The shame.
