NEW YORK, United States – Carlos Alcaraz surged into the fourth spherical of the US Open on Friday as Novak Djokovic and defending girls’s champion Aryna Sabalenka aimed to maintain their title bids on monitor.
Spanish second seed Alcaraz breezed previous Italian thirty second seed Luciano Darderi in emphatic trend, successful 6-2, 6-4, 6-0 on the Arthur Ashe Stadium.
Alcaraz’s one hour 44-minute victory sends the 2022 US Open champion into a gathering on Sunday towards France’s Arthur Rinderknech, who defeated compatriot Benjamin Bonzi 4-6, 6-3, 6-3, 6-2.
Alcaraz is aiming to complete the season on a excessive after successful the French Open in June earlier than shedding within the last of Wimbledon final month.
The five-time Grand Slam singles champion opened Friday’s play on the Billie Jean King Nationwide Tennis Heart’s primary courtroom, and admitted he had been nervous about his early 11:30 a.m. native time begin.
“I am not an early morning individual so it is tough for me to get up within the morning,” Alcaraz mentioned. “One of many good issues immediately although I awakened early, did the nice and cozy up and felt good.
“Beginning at 11:30 my first aim is to start out effectively with power and rhythm. I performed nice tennis, good efficiency so I am happy with that.”
Alcaraz wanted a medical timeout whereas main 5-4 within the second set for remedy on his proper knee, however later mentioned he had no damage issues.
“I simply requested the physio to take a look at it as a result of I needed to be feeling good bodily for that final set,” he mentioned. “I am not nervous about it.”
Raducanu dream over
Later Friday, the 38-year-old Djokovic will purpose to maneuver nearer to a attainable semi-final showdown with Alcaraz when he takes on Britain’s Cameron Norrie within the night session.
The seventh-seeded Serbian legend is chasing a document twenty fifth Grand Slam singles title in New York, the place he has gained 4 occasions earlier than.
Different males’s seeds in motion on Friday embody sixth seed Ben Shelton, who faces France’s Adrian Mannarino, and American seventeenth seed Frances Tiafoe, who takes on Germany’s Jan-Lennard Struff.
In one other early recreation, Czech twentieth seed Jiri Lehecka sailed into the following spherical with a 6-4, 6-4, 6-4 defeat of Belgium’s Raphael Collignon.
Within the girls’s draw in the meantime, world primary Sabalenka faces Canada’s thirty first seed Leylah Fernandez in an evening recreation on the Louis Armstrong Stadium.
Sabalenka is aiming to change into the primary lady to efficiently defend the US Open since Serena Williams gained a hat-trick of titles in 2012, 2013 and 2014.
Fernandez reached the ultimate of the US Open in 2021, the place she was crushed by Britain’s Emma Raducanu — the one participant in historical past ever to win a Grand Slam singles title after rising by qualifying.
Raducanu’s hopes of one other fairytale run in New York got here to a juddering halt on Friday when she was steamrollered in straight units by Kazakh ninth seed Elena Rybakina, shedding 6-1, 6-2.
“I believed Elena performed very effectively, and I discovered it very tough to get any form of rhythm within the match,” Raducanu mentioned of Rybakina, the 2022 Wimbledon champion.
“When these prime gamers are taking part in very well, it is tough,” she added. “The ball simply comes by actually, actually quick, and you are feeling such as you simply do not actually have any time, you recognize, to create something, so it is simply fixed stress.” — Agence France-Presse
