NEW YORK/WASHINGTON, September 4, 2023 (by Michael Dickens)
As the second week of the 2023 US Open got underway Sunday on another glorious New York City summer day, six of the eight remaining players in the bottom half of the men’s draw were appearing in the fourth round at Flushing Meadows for the first time, giving it a new look and feel.
While only three-time US Open champion Novak Djokovic of Serbia and American No. 2 Frances Tiafoe had reached the round of 16 before – Tiafoe was a semifinalist last year and has been in the final 16 four straight years – this year, there were plenty of new faces for tennis fans to rally around, including: top American Taylor Fritz, No. 14 Tommy Paul and #NextGenATP rising star Ben Shelton, as well as Australian wild card Rinky Hijikata, and qualifiers Borna Gojo of Croatia and Dominic Stricker of Switzerland.
Not since 2011 with Mardy Fish, John Isner, Andy Roddick and Donald Young had there been a quartet of American men in the US Open fourth round. The last time three Americans reached the US Open quarterfinals was 2005 behind Andre Agassi, James Blake and Robby Ginepri. Now, history has been re-written after Shelton, Tiafoe and Fritz all prevailed to move into the last eight of the year’s final major.
As the afternoon began with Paul, 26, and the 47th-ranked 20-year-old Shelton meeting on Arthur Ashe Stadium, it assured that at least one American man would advance to the quarterfinal round. In their second meeting in a major this season, following Paul’s four-set quarterfinal win at the Australian Open in the start of the season, Shelton got his revenge against Paul by winning, 6-4, 6-3, 4-6, 6-4, on Sunday. The 2022 NCAA singles champ from the University of Florida recovered nicely after squandering a 4-1 lead in the third set of this two-hour, 50-minute tussle between friends – the first time Shelton has been featured on the biggest stage at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center.
While Shelton fired a 147 miles-per-hour ace on Friday in his win against Russian Aslan Karatsev, he topped that plateau twice against Paul, smashing two 149 miles-per-hour serves at 3-1 in the third set, which set a new fastest serve of the tournament – still three miles-per-hour slower than the 152 mph serve registered by Roddick in 2004.
With 16 aces and 36 winners overall, the 20-year-old Shelton’s triumph makes him the youngest American man in more than 20 years – not since Roddick in 2002 – to reach the quarterfinals at Flushing Meadows.
“Being at home here in front of an American crowd, I have felt the love all week,” Shelton said in his on-court interview after winning just his 16th match of the season. “I played another American today and we had a great battle. It’s hard to believe I am playing on Arthur Ashe right now with the stands completely full.”
Later, the 10th-seeded Tiafoe, arguably the most popular and charismatic player in the men’s draw, faced the 110th-ranked Hijikata on Louis Armstrong Stadium and won 6-4, 6-1, 6-4 in two hours and three minutes to end the Australian’s run in New York and set up a Tuesday showdown with Shelton. Although Tiafoe twice let a break advantage slip through his racquet in the final set, he recovered in time to advance to his third major quarterfinal in back of 27 winners.
“American tennis is looking really great right now, the guys are finally catching up to the women.”
Rennae Stubbs having a little fun with Frances Tiafoe post match. 😂 pic.twitter.com/5UPh0EZb5d
— US Open Tennis (@usopen) September 3, 2023
“He has been quietly going through the draw and I had never played him before,” the 25-year-old Tiafoe said of Hijikata, 22, who was appearing in the fourth round of a major for the first time and is up to No. 81 in the live ATP rankings. “When I broke in the first, I really took off. I got a little sloppy at the end but happy to be through and happy to be in the quarterfinals.”
As the afternoon turned into evening, No. 9 seed Fritz followed Tiafoe onto Armstrong against the surprising 128th-ranked Stricker, who has cracked the Top 100 barrier with a trio of first-week wins over Australian Alexei Popyrin, No. 7 seed Stefanos Tsitsipas of Greece and wild card Benjamin Bonzi of France. Fritz’s experience paid off with a 7-6 (2), 6-4, 6-4 victory over Stricker, which included 17 aces, 35 winners and an 83-percent efficiency in winning points on his first serve, to advance to his first U.S. Open quarterfinal. The 25-year-old Rancho Santa Fe, Calif. native hasn’t lost a set through his first four matches.
Next, Fritz will face No. 2 seed Djokovic, who will return to World No. 1 at the conclusion of the US Open. Sunday evening, Djokovic took on the 105th-ranked Gojo, a 6-foot-5 25-year-old Croatian who played college tennis at Wake Forest, and won 6-2, 7-5, 6-4 in two hours and 26 minutes to advance to his 13th US Open quarterfinal in 17 appearances and 57th major quarterfinal overall. It was Djokovic’s 98th career match at Flushing Meadows, tying him for third with Agassi in the Open Era and behind Jimmy Connors (115) and Roger Federer (103).
“Novak’s gotten me a lot,” Fritz admitted during his on-court interview, flashing a grin as he spoke of his 0-7 lifetime win-loss record against the 23-time major champion. “But I think one of these times I’m gonna get him. … At least I hope so.”
Later, in his news conference, Fritz added: “I’m really happy. I feel like from the ground I’ve been playing good tennis all week. Then I feel like in the second and third sets today, [my] serve started coming together. I feel like how I closed out the match, the last two sets, I feel like my serve started feeling the best it’s felt. Just in time. I feel like everything’s coming together.”
Gauff ends Wozniacki’s comeback, reaches quarterfinals
On Sunday afternoon in front of another sell-out crowd on Arthur Ashe Stadium, U.S. sensation Coco Gauff ended the comeback run of Danish 33-year-old Caroline Wozniacki, 6-3, 3-6, 6-1, to become the first American teenager to reach back-to-back quarterfinals at the US Open since Serena Williams.
On Tuesday, World No. 6 Gauff will play No. 20 Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia, who knocked out World No.1 and defending champion Iga Swiatek of Poland, 3-6, 6-3, 6-1. It was Ostapenko’s fourth career victory over Swiatek and means World No. 2 Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus will overtake the Polish star (who has been ranked No. 1 for 75 consecutive weeks) and ascend to the No. 1 ranking after the US Open.
Jelena Ostapenko reaches the #USOpen quartefinals for the first time in her career! pic.twitter.com/QzSWObVJYE
— US Open Tennis (@usopen) September 4, 2023
Gauff overcame 44 unforced errors by hitting 33 winners against Wozniacki, who received a wild card entry into the tournament. The 19-year-old American said she knew she had to be aggressive to beat the former Australian Open champion Wozniacki, who came out of a three-year retirement earlier this summer after starting a family with her husband David Lee, a former U.S. pro basketball star.
“In some moments I missed, but I’m happy I was able to get back and focus,” Gauff said.
“Caroline’s back – it’s like she never left,” she added in her on-court interview. “She’s been an inspiration growing up. She definitely gets to a lot of balls. Sometimes, I felt like I was playing myself.”
Since losing her first-round match at Wimbledon, Gauff has now won 15 of her last 16 matches and collected the two biggest titles – last month at Washington, D.C. and Cincinnati – of her young career. She’s won the most WTA titles as a teenager since Wozniacki.
In her post-match news conference, Wozniacki, who played tune-ups in Montreal and Cincinnati before arriving in New York City, said: “I wanted to see with these three events that I came back and played this year, I wanted to see kind of where I was tennis-wise, where I was physically and everything else. I think I’ve learned a lot from that.”
Earlier, No. 10 seed Karolina Muchova of the Czech Republic and No. 30 seed Sorana Cirstea of Romania each won their respective fourth-round matches to set up a quarterfinal pairing on Tuesday.
Muchova hit 32 winners to defeat No. 53 Wang Xinyu of China, 6-3, 5-7, 6-1, en route to reaching her first US Open quarterfinal. Meanwhile, Cirstea needed just 84 minutes to eliminate No. 15 seed Belinda Bencic of Switzerland, 6-3, 6-3. At 33, Cirstea is the oldest first-time US Open quarterfinalist among women, and she’s into her second career major quarterfinal 14 years after reaching her first one back in 2009 at Roland Garros.
By the numbers
• Coco Gauff is the youngest American women’s player to reach consecutive quarterfinals at the US Open since Serena Williams in 1999-2000.
• With Ben Shelton set to face Frances Tiafoe, it marks the second all-U.S. men’s singles quarterfinal in a major this year. The last time this happened was in 2001, when Andre Agassi Agassi played Todd Martin (Australian Open) and faced Pete Sampras (US Open).
• With her 6-2, 6-1 win over No. 22 seed Ekaterina Alexandrova of Russia Saturday evening, No. 9 seed Marketa Vondrousova of the Czech Republic has won 10 straight Grand Slam matches dating back to her Wimbledon title run.
• Entering the round of 16, all of the top eight men’s doubles seeds remained, headed by No. 1 seeds Wesley Koolhof of the Netherlands and Neal Skupski of Great Britain.
“Quotable …”
• “He has come back from two-sets-to-love down, like, six, seven times. It’s something crazy. To be 36-years-old and still doing the same things that he was when he was 20, it’s incredible. It’s something I admire.”
– Defending US Open champion and top seed Carlos Alcaraz of Spain on Novak Djokovic.
• “My worst year at my job is still traveling the world and playing tennis. Realistically, it’s not that bad.”
– Madison Keys of the United States, one of four U.S. women to reach the fourth round of the US Open.
• “It’s a big match. He’s Bugs Bunny. He’s got crazy endless energy. He’s gonna come after me. I’m gonna come after him. It’s gonna be a great battle. We’re gonna compete really hard. I plan on being in the semifinals.”
– Frances Tiafoe of the United States, on facing fellow American Ben Shelton in the US Open quarterfinals.
