Sunday 4 September 2016

Pliskova fourth round first time

The third round of mens and women's singles is now complete after Day Six and the round of sixteen is set to be played at the 2016 US Open.

All the eight women favoured to win their matches did so with fifth seed Simona Halep being taken the full distance by Hungarian Timea Babos.  Halep dominated the opening set 6-1, but Babos hit 10 winners and Halep's serve fell apart in set two, levelling the match at a set apiece.

Halep held out in a tight decider and won her spot in the fourth round 6-1 2-6 6-4, where she will play 11th seed Carla Suarez Navarro, who has yet to drop a single set in her three matches - Carla's third round victim was Russian 19th seed Elena Vesnina.  11 more unforced errors and an inability to win enough points on her second serve were key factors in Elena's demise. 

Serena won in the day, and her sister won at night, the losing pair Johanna Larsson and  Laura Siegemund respectively.  Not too much respect shown by the sisters when considering the scorelines - Serena 6-2 6-1 and Venus 6-1 6-2. Serena said her goodbyes to Johanna in an hour, while Venus spent about twenty minutes longer on court.  

Next cab off the rank for Serena is unseeded Yaroslava Shvedova, the Russian born Kazakhstan player who removed China's Shuai Zhang with far more effective serving and 24 winners.

Venus must deal with the potentially much tougher proposition of 10th seed Karolina Pliskova.  The Czech player is using this year's event to begin correcting a poor record in majors - the one glaring gap in a glowing record.  Karolina has not dropped a set in reaching her first round of sixteen at Grand Slam level, and her match with VW promises plenty.

Against most other players, the third round performance of Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova would have been a winning one, but Pliskova was scintillating around the court, managing to fire off 31 winners in her 6-2 6-4 win.

The final fourth round women's singles match will feature 4th seed Aga Radwanska, who found 25th seed Caroline Garcia easier opposition than had been Natalie Broady two days previous.  The straight sets win highlighted the incredible patience and accuracy of Radwanska who only hit 9 winners to Garcia's 14, but in a 93 point match committed a paltry 5 unforced errors - Garcia 34.

Aga will play unseeded Ana Konjuh in the fourth round, thanks to the 92nd ranked Croatian player's three set win over similarly unseeded American Varvara Lepchenko.

Of the men's third round clashes, the most disappointing was the night match.  Sad because the finish was determined by an injury to Nick Kyrgios.  The Australian had won the opening set, but was being kept honest by Ukranian Illya Marchenko.  Injury occurred when attempting a forehand late in the second set and that enabled Marchenko to capitalise and level the match.

Despite treatment, Kyrgios was never capable of resuming to a competitive capacity, and he bravely fought to the end of the third set before retiring,  Marchenko into the round of sixteen 4-6 6-4 6-1 (ret).  Hopefully the recovery will be quick for Nick.

Meanwhile Illya has a date with 3rd seed Stan Wawrinka, and for much of his third round match, the Swiss star must have been considering flight plans back home.  Unseeded Englishman Dan Evans was leading two sets to one, and actually had a match point in set four before Stan managed to take it 10 points to 8 in a tie break.
Experience and class told in the fifth and Wawrinka remains, winning 4-6 6-3 6-7 7-6 6-2.
Between the pair 100 winners were hit during the four hours they were on court.

Second seed Andy Murray is another through to the fourth round, but in the opening two sets against Paolo Lorenzi, it was the Italian serving for both.  Fortunately for Murray he was able to break at the right time, and eventually win set one.  Lorenzi stood firm to take the second but he couldn't ride the momentum and Murray cruised home 7-6 5-7 6-2 6-3.  
Grigor Dimitrov has been solid in his three matches so far, and should offer Murray his greatest test yet when the pair clash next.  Dimitrov, apart from a slight third set lapse, had far too many weapons for Portugal's Joao Sousa to defend, victorious 6-4 6-1 3-6 6-2.

The winner of Murray / Dimitrov will play the winner of Nishikori / Karlovic in a quarter final.
Ivo Karlovic is in the round of sixteen following a big serving match against 19 year old American qualifier Jared Donaldson in which the 21st seed prevailed 6-4 7-6 6-3.  54 winners from Karlovic and 34 from Donaldson illustrate the quality of tennis on show from these two.
Nishikori dropped another set, the opener this time, to Nicolas Mahut, before destroying the French hopes in this match - the result 4-6 6-1 6-2 6-2.  The sixth seed has won each of his matches in four sets, and for every set he has won, the average games surrendered is a mere touch over 2.  He can't afford the occasional lapse of concentration, leading to the loss of a set, once he encounters serious opposition.

One of the most mouth watering fourth round matches on the menu is that between unseeded but highly fancied Juan Martin del Potro, and Dominic Theim, seeded eight.
Del Potro led 11th seed David Ferrer 2-0 in the first set, lost the next five games, then steadied to win the tie break.  After that it was all Argentina and the 2009 champ won 7-6 6-2 6-3.  Thiem also began shakily, in fact losing the opening set badly to Pablo Carreno Busta.  Then the young Austrian slipped into top gear and showed his talent, edging out the Spaniard 1-6 6-4 6-4 7-5.

Day Seven - half way already ! - and half of the round of sixteen matches are scheduled. 
The 10 players required on Arthur Ashe Stadium during the day and night sessions represent 9 different nations.

The final 16 in the women's singles draw come from 13 different nations.
The final 16 in the men's singles draw come from 13 different nations. (Not the same 13)

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