Rafael Nadal crushed another opponent at the US Open on Saturday, only to see his title rival and likely quarter-final opponent Roger Federer later record an even more convincing victory.
Nadal beat Ivan Dodig 6-4, 6-3, 6-3, affirming his favoritism to win the tournament. The second-seeded Spaniard has lost just 21 games across three matches and has faced only five break points, saving each one of them.
Federer then emerged on Arthur Ashe Stadium and notched an even more imperious victory, dominating Frenchman Adrian Mannarino in a 6-3, 6-0, 6-2 victory that came in just 81 minutes.
Photo: Reuters
The five games conceded brought Federer’s tournament tally to 21 — the same as Nadal — and he has spent only four-and-a-half hours on court, making a mockery of fears that his career was on the wane after an early exit at Wimbledon and patchy form since.
“There’s always a lot of pressure coming out here on this court to perform, because you never know if you’re going to play well, but tonight was one of those nights,” said Federer, who compiled a 34-8 edge in winners.
The 38th-ranked Dodig beat Nadal at the hard-court tournament in Montreal two years ago, but Nadal is looking like the king of hard courts these days, with an 18-match winning streak on the surface.
Photo: Reuters
“I am winning because I am playing well from the baseline and I am making the right decisions in the right moments,” Nadal said.
Before they can play each other in the quarter-finals — in what would be their first-ever match at a US Open — Nadal and Federer must negotiate tricky fourth-round matches.
Federer faces Spanish veteran Tommy Robredo, who ended the run of 179th-ranked qualifier Daniel Evans of Britain 7-6 (8/6), 6-1, 4-6, 7-5, while Nadal takes on Germany’s Phillip Kohlschreiber, who eliminated big-serving John Isner of the US.
Photo: AFP
“I don’t look ahead, even though I understand the urge of the press to try to go there already,” Federer said when asked about the looming Nadal clash. “I have gone through that my entire career, people talking about our matches even before the tournament started. We’re used to it. We know how to handle it. Clearly I think we both hope it’s going to happen this time, for the first time in New York.”
Fourth seed David Ferrer needed nearly three hours to down 172nd-ranked qualifier Mikhail Kukushkin 6-4, 6-3, 4-6, 6-4. His next opponent is No. 18 seed Janko Tipsarevic, who also took four sets to knock off 20-year-old Jack Sock of the US 3-6, 7-6 (7/1), 6-1, 6-2.
Eighth seed Richard Gasquet and No. 10 Milos Raonic set up another fourth-round matchup with victories.
Photo: EPA
The losses by Isner and Sock meant wild-card Tim Smyczek was the only American man left in the singles draw.
Unless Smyczek managed to beat Marcel Granollers yesterday, there will be no Americans in the men’s singles round-of-16 — the first time that has ever happened in the US Open dating back to 1881.
In the women’s singles, second seed Victoria Azarenka took 2 hours, 40 minutes to close out Alize Cornet 6-7 (2/7), 6-3, 6-2.
Serving on game point at 5-3 in the second, Azarenka pumped her fist and started walking off the court after 26th-seeded Cornet hit a backhand into the net.
The chair umpire had to get her attention to inform her that the line judge had called Azarenka’s previous shot out — replays showed it landed inside the baseline. The umpire overruled the call, but they still had to replay the point.
“Are you freaking kidding me?” Azarenka howled to the chair umpire.
“What the hell are you doing?” she asked.
After the match, she put it this way: “That was the most ridiculous thing there is.”
On her second try at set point, Azarenka hit a forehand wide to send the game to deuce, but she won the next two points to clinch the set.
Then she dominated the third to advance to face 13th seed Ana Ivanovic, who beat young American Christina McHale 4-6, 7-5, 6-4 in 2 hours, 26 minutes.
McHale served for the match at 5-4 in the second set and also had two break points at 5-5.
While McHale lost, another young American, Alison Riske, pulled off an impressive scalp by cruising past former Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova 6-3, 6-0.
The Czech had been in bed with a fever the day before.
“My body wouldn’t let me fight,” Kvitova said.
Simona Halep, seeded 21st, crushed No. 14 Maria Kirilenko 6-1, 6-0, setting up a clash with Flavia Pennetta, who beat 27th seed Svetlana Kuznetsova 7-5, 6-1.
No. 10 Roberta Vinci will face unseeded Camila Giorgi in an all-Italian match.
The 136th-ranked Giorgi defeated 2009 US Open runner-up Caroline Wozniacki, who was seeded sixth, 4-6, 6-4, 6-3.
Shohei Ohtani and his wife arrived in South Korea with his Los Angeles Dodgers teammates yesterday ahead of their season-opening games with the San Diego Padres next week. Ohtani, wearing a black training suit and a cap backwards, was the first Dodgers player who showed up at the arrival gate of Incheon International Airport, west of Seoul. His wife, Mamiko Tanaka, walked several steps behind him. As a crowd of fans, many wearing Dodgers jerseys, shouted his name and cheered slogans, Ohtani briefly waved his hand, but did not say anything before he entered a limousine bus with his wife. Fans held placards
Taiwan’s Tai Tzu-ying yesterday advanced to the quarter-finals at the All England Open, beating Kim Ga-eun of South Korea 21-17, 21-15. With the win, Tai earned a semi-final against China’s He Bingjiao, who beat Michelle Li of Canada 21-9, 21-9. Defending champion An Se-young defeated India’s P.V. Sindhu 21-19, 21-11. An on Wednesday cruised into the second round, unlike last year’s men’s winner, Li Shifeng, who suffered a shock defeat. South Korea’s An, the world No. 1, overcame Taiwan’s Hsu Wen-chi 21-17, 21-16 to set up the match against Sindhu. In other women’s singles matches, Taiwan’s Sung Shuo-yun lost 21-18, 24-22 against Carolina Marin of
EYEING TOP SPOT: A victory in today’s final against Storm Hunter and Katerina Siniakova would return 38-year-old Hsieh Su-wei to the world No. 1 ranking Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei and Elise Mertens on Thursday secured a spot in the women’s doubles finals at the BNP Paribas Open after dispatching Nicole Melichar-Martinez of the US and Australia’s Ellen Perez 6-2, 7-6 (7/5) at Indian Wells. Hsieh and her Belgian partner Mertens, who won the Australian Open in late January, coasted through the first set after breaking their opponents’ serve twice, but found the going tougher in the second. Both pairs could only muster one break point over 12 games, neither of which were converted, leaving the set to be decided by a tiebreaker. Hsieh and Mertens took a 6-3 lead,
DOUBLES PAYBACK: Hsieh Su-wei and Elise Martens avenged their defeat in the quarters at the Qatar TotalEnergies Open against Demi Schuurs and Luisa Stefani Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei on Wednesday advanced to the semi-finals of the women’s doubles at the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, California. Hsieh and partner Elise Mertens of Belgium dispatched Demi Schuurs and Luisa Stefani 6-1, 6-4 to set up a clash against Nicole Melichar-Martinez of the US and Australia’s Ellen Perez for a spot in the final of the WTA 1000 tournament. Hsieh and Martens made a blistering start to their rematch after they lost to Schuurs and Stefani in the quarter-finals at the Qatar TotalEnergies Open last month, winning three games without reply at the start of the first set