US fans happy - Johnson in W-S final

Semi finals on the ATP and WTA tours.

WTA Connecticut Open, New Haven:

• Aryna Sabalenka defeated Julia Goerges (5) 6-4 7-6(3)
• Carla Suarez Navarro defeated Monica Puig 4-4 (retired) - Puig had treatment for injury to her abdomen, and although she made an attempt to continue, quickly realised that the US Open was more important than risking further damage here.

Carla has played one complete match this tournament - her opening round win against Barbora Strycova (8).

Since then she has received a walkover from Johanna Konta, had Petra Kvitová retire after one set, and now Monica Puig surrender to injury just eight games in.

No one is suggesting Carla doesn’t deserve her finals berth, but this is a rare run of injury or illness misfortune for three of her opponents.

ATP Winston-Salem Open, Winston-Salem:

• Daniil Medvedev defeated Taro Daniel 6-1 6-1
• Steve Johnson (8) defeated Pablo Carreno Busta (2) 6-3 6-4 to give the American crowd one of their own to support in the final

US Open qualifying:

The 16 spots in both the women’s and men’s main draws allocated to qualifiers have been determined following three rounds of matches.

Women’s

Patty Schnyder, nearly 40 years of age, won through to the main draw and will face Maria Sharapova in the first round.

The pair have met on 8 occasions,  but not since 2008 in Rome.  They first played in 2004 in Birmingham, when Patty was in the top twenty and Maria was a week or so from winning her first Grand  Slam title on the Wimbledon grass.

Former GS tournament finalists, Vera Zvonareva and Eugenie Bouchard won their final matches and have been granted very winnable matches in the main draw first round, Vera up against fellow Russian Anna Blinkova, ranked 100, and Eugenie facing French wildcard Harmony Tan, ranked 399.

Men’s

36 year olds Tommy Robredo and Nicolas Mahut battled it out for three sets before Tommy prevailed, making the main draw for the first time since 2015. That was his 14th main draw showing out of 15 since 2001.

Canadian Peter Polansky, ranked 120, lost in the final round of qualifying to American Donald Young, but because of the withdrawals from the main draw by Jared Donaldson and Pablo Cuevas, entry was granted to Peter as a lucky loser.

This completes a unique year for Peter, where he has made the main draw of each of the four Grand Slam tournaments as a lucky loser.

In each instance, he has lost the opening round match - he will be hoping that his luck extends further this fourth time.