Maria Sakkari knocked out 2019 champion Bianca Andreescu in the last women’s game in tournament history to reach the US Open quarter-finals for the first time.
Sakkari came back to win 6-7 (2), 7-6 (6), 6-3 as Andreescu struggled with a left leg that was taped by a coach during a medical time out in the third set. Andreescu was limping between the points on the stretch and his leg deformed several times.
The three-and-a-half-hour game ended at around 2.15 a.m. The previous women’s record was 1:48 am for a first-round match in 2016 in which Madison Keys defeated Alison Riske; three men’s matches ended at 2:26 a.m.
Grunts from both players reverberated across the thousands of unused blue seats at Arthur Ashe Stadium at the end. The fans who remained engaged in chants of first names in duel: “Ma-ri-a! and “Bi-an-ca!” “
It was Andreescu’s first loss in the main draw at Flushing Meadows. She beat Serena Williams in the final to win the title in her debut two years ago and missed the hard court Grand Slam tournament in 2020 while sitting still all season with a knee injury.
Sakkari’s best performance at a major tournament was a semi-final at Roland Garros in June.
Bianca Andreescu and Maria Sakkari head to a third set in the final game of the US Open fourth round.
Each of the first two sets ended in a tiebreaker and they’ve already been playing for 2 and a half hours.
Andreescu was the 2019 champion at Flushing Meadows and never lost in the main draw. She missed the tournament last year.
Sakkari is trying to reach the quarterfinals of the US Open for the first time. His best performance at a Grand Slam was a semi-final at Roland Garros in June.
The No.1 seed moved away from the final 2 1/2 sets to beat 99th American Jenson Brooksby, 1-6, 6-3, 6-2, 6-2 and maintain his hopes for the first Large of the calendar year. Slam by a male player since 1969.
Djokovic will next face No.6 seed Matteo Berrettini, the man he beat to win Wimbledon and give him 20 Grand Slam titles, tied with Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal for the most part by a man.
Top-ranked Djokovic leads 1-6, 6-3, 6-2 as he tries to keep his hopes of winning a men’s record, the 21st Grand Slam title alive.
Djokovic ultimately had a fairly easy time in the third set, leading to a 4-0 lead and winning in 49 minutes as Brooksby, 20, showed signs of wear after a grueling second set.
Novak Djokovic equalized his fascinating fourth-round match against American Jenson Brooksby by one set apiece.
Brooksby, a 99th-ranked wild card, won the opening set 6-1. Djokovic returned to take the second set 6-3.
Trying to complete the first one-man Grand Slam in a calendar year since 1969, Djokovic overcame the loss of a grueling 24-point game that reduced his lead to 3-2. He beat Brooksby in the next game, then won the next to regain control.
Jenson Brooksby won the first set against No.1 Novak Djokovic – and the 20-year-old American did it easily.
Djokovic is trying to win the Grand Slam of the calendar year. Brooksby is trying to become the youngest American in a major quarterfinal since Andy Roddick at Wimbledon in 2003.
Emma Raducanu has come all the way from the US Open qualifying rounds to the quarter-finals.
The 18-year-old Briton has routed American Shelby Rogers 6-2, 6-1 to join compatriot Leylah Fernandez in the last eight women’s games.
Raducanu reached the fourth round at Wimbledon and went one step further in the last Grand Slam tournament of the year, becoming the third women’s qualifier to reach the US Open quarter-finals in the professional age.
Rogers, who beat No.1 seed Ash Barty in the final round, took a 2-0 lead before Raducanu won the next 11 games.
Another player qualified for his first Grand Slam quarter-final when unranked Lloyd Harris handled Reilly Opelka’s big serve and knocked out No. 22 American 6-7 (6), 6-4, 6 -1, 6-3.
Zverev started his winning streak at the Olympics, where he beat top Novak Djokovic in the semifinals en route to the gold medal.
The Swiss Olympic gold medalist beat Iga Swiatek 7-6 (12), 6-3 to advance to the final eight at Flushing Meadows for the third time.
11th-seeded Bencic took out the long tiebreaker of the first set, then won the second set in 43 minutes – only about 20 more than the length of the tiebreaker.
Bencic was a semi-finalist at the US Open in 2019, the last time she played. She also reached the quarterfinals on her debut in 2014.
Swiatek, the Polish No.7 seed who won the French Open last year, was the only female player to reach the fourth round of each major tournament this year.
Novak Djokovic is back at the stage of his loss at the US Open last year.
It was in the fourth round last year at Flushing Meadows that Djokovic defaulted for accidentally hitting a linesman in the throat with a tennis ball after losing a match in his match against Pablo Carreño Busta.
After losing to Rafael Nadal in the Roland Garros final, Djokovic has won all three majors this year, a streak of 24 consecutive Grand Slams. He would become the first man to achieve all four victories in the same year since 1969 if he won the US Open.
Olympic champions Alexander Zverev and Belinda Bencic were also on the Labor Day program. Shelby Rogers of the United States, who knocked out women’s No.1 seed Ash Barty, was set to face 18-year-old British qualifier Emma Raducanu.
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