Wozniacki in US Open semis

Tennis fans who were looking for closely contested singles matches between some of the world's best singles players, should have steered clear of the USTA Billy Jean King National Tennis Center in Flushing Meadows, Queens, New York City on Day Nine of the US Open.

The first quarter final began with 7th seed and finalist from 2015, Roberta Vinci continually breaking the serve of number two seed Angie Kerber, only to have the same done to her in return.  Vinci, despite her inability to kick an opponent while down, ended up serving for set one.  Kerber predictably broke again, and the spirit of the Italian was damaged beyond repair.

In fact Vinci failed to win another game as Kerber struck 14 winners in the second set of her 7-5 6-0 win.  

Her semi final opposition will come in the form of Caroline Wozniacki, who performed rather well in the night match, surrendering just two games in her whitewash of Anastasija Sevastova.

Admittedly Sevastova injured her foot very early, but it shouldn't detract from yet another great exhibition from Caro, who won about 75% of points on her own serve and 60% while receiving.  14 winners and a mere 5 unforced errors were more reasons why Angie should be ready for a tight semi final.

After winning three five setters in a row to to reach his quarter final, Lucas Pouille could not find enough to contend adequately with his fellow French countryman and tenth seed Gael Monfils.  The match was not a typical Monfils exhibition of delightful shot making, but a more mature approach from the popular entertainer (don't get me wrong - not devoid of all colour) whose previous foray into the final four at this level was several years ago at Roland Garros.

Gael was never under pressure on serve, facing no break points the entire match, and hitting 34 clean winners in his 6-4 6-3 6-3 march into a semi final showdown against Novak Djokovic.

The Djoker is definitely the black cat or broken mirror of this year's US Open.  Of his five opponents, one was too injured to play him, another done after six games of their match, and sadly Jo-Wilfried Tsonga could only last two sets of the night time quarter final.

Up until the French knee gave out, Tsonga had been ripped apart on the scoreboard, not so much by Djokovic winners, but by the errors of Jo-Wilfried.  For almost all of the two sets played, Tsonga failed to be himself, take chances and attack the top seed - instead he attempted to out rally Djokovic, a task which is impossible to achieve beyond once in a blue moon, unless you have the same repertoire of tricks and overall racquet mastery as the star Serb.

Time after time long exchanges were concluded with a French shot going wide or net bound.  Novak was patient, and occasionally produced something special to remind those with short memories that he, not Murray, is still the supreme exponent of this craft.  

The Day 10 quarter finals have the potential for closer tennis, and the big hitting match up of Pliskova v Konjuh is especially enthralling due to neither player having been to this point in a major before.

Del Potro will be followed keenly as his comeback to top level tennis gathers greater momentum by the day.  Stan Wawrinka, his opponent, in Grand Slam events can deliver at both ends of the spectrum and luckily this fortnight he is striking the ball with a confidence enough to worry anyone.

SW and Handy Andy face their potentially toughest tests yet in Halep and Nishikori, but if at anywhere near their best should progress.

Aga falls to teenager Konjuh

The remaining US Open quarter finalists in mens and women's singles were decided on Day Eight, and the upset of the day came at night with Aga Radwanska falling to the unseeded 18 year old Ana Konjuh from Croatia.  Ana had managed to roll through the draw without meeting any highly ranked players after a good win in the first round against 20th seed Kiki Bertens.

So no one expected the 92nd ranked player to knock over Aga in straight sets.  The fourth seed had never passed the fourth round at Flushing Meadows and this year seemed set to rid herself of that hurdle.  Not to be unfortunately, as she was witness to 38 winners flowing from the  Konjuh racquet on the way to a 6-4 6-4 Croatian triumph.

Venus Williams will not be in the quarter finals, despite a whirlwind start which put Karolina Pliskova under immense pressure.  At 5-1 and serving for the opening set, the 36 year old suffered the wobbles.  Pliskova broke twice, capitalising on a fragile second serve from Williams, and could have levelled at 5-5.  

However another momentum shift saw VW break, take the set 6-4, then achieve an early advantage in set two.  Pliskova turned it around, delivering some of the best tennis of the match to level at a set all, before advancing to the final eight with success in the third set tie breaker and in the match 4-6 6-4 7-6.

Konjuh will be Pliskova's quarter final opponent.

Simona Halep did what no other player has been able to do this past week or so - take a set off Carla Suarez Navarro.  The fifth seed was quickly out of the blocks, and maintained the form, creating several break points and converting three.  The quality of tennis was high, but the key points were won by Simona who was a set up, 6-2 in 46 minutes.

Set two was more challenging for the Romanian, but despite the best efforts of Suarez Navarro, Halep won through 6-2 7-5.  

The standard of Halep's tennis was impressive, and will need to be at least that good again as her victory set up a quarter final meeting with Serena Williams - the great one swept aside Yaroslava Shvedova as easily as she wanted it to be.  Or it appeared that way.  28 winners and not facing a break point, Serena looked assured from the outset. She now has won more matches at Grand Slam level than any other player, passing the great Roger Federer.

Grigor Dimitrov has under achieved during his career, but this year in NYC had done well to make the round of sixteen, perhaps starting to deliver on his potential again.  But no, only teasing us some more -  his match against Andy Murray promised more than the debacle delivered to a short changed crowd.  Five games was all that the Bulgarian could claim as his own after the three set disaster, and we really can't take much from what was effectively hitting practice for the second seed.

Murray will hit more tennis balls in the quarter final when he faces sixth seed Kei Nishikori.  Japan's big hope cut down giant Croatian Ivo Karlovic to size, the first two sets in his keeping, capturing a single service break in each.  Nishikori hit 26 winners across those two sets with only 3 unforced errors, sensational figures.

The third set was more difficult to traverse, with no service break achieved by either player, but Nishikori deservedly won the tie breaker and the match 6-3 6-4 7-6.  

Kei's 44 winners and 7 unforced errors is a statistical indication of the increased difficulty Murray will face next up.

Juan Martin del Potro was leading 8th seed Dominic Thiem 6-3 3-2 before a knee injury disappointingly forced the Austrian to retire.  Del Potro benefits with a quarter final berth, and despite the less than ideal method of advancing, his form throughout the tournament suggests that he was just as likely to win the match should it have gone the distance.

Next test for Juan Martin will be Stan Wawrinka - the third seed had too much class for Illya Marchenko, and although dropping the third set, Wawrinka at no stage appeared threatened.  Hard to predict a winner from this star laden quarter final but either poses a genuine threat to the winner of Murray v Nishikori.

Rafa Out - French Flag Flying

Day Seven of US Open 2016 was one for the French.  At its conclusion, three of the four confirmed quarter finalists in the men's singles draw were Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, Gael Monfils and Lucas Pouille.

The US, however, lost out with both Jack Sock and Madison Keys exiting from fourth round matches on the first Sunday.  The Williams sisters are the only Americans left, and they play their round of sixteen matches on Day Eight.

The biggest news was the other side of the Pouille success.  The 24th seed ousted 4th seed and dual champion Rafa Nadal, taking over four intriguing hours to complete the huge upset.

Rafa didn't turn up for the opening set, not winning a single point on his second serve while Pouille, despite a poor first serve %, dominated on both first and second deliveries.  

As expected Nadal turned 1-6 into 6-2, belting 14 winners in the second set, but it was insufficient to rid New York of the French pest.  Pouille won the third, leaving Rafa to have to win in five sets.  

Pouille's game became a little ragged in the fourth set, with a few more unforced errors, several points lost at the net.  Rafa achieved an extra service break to level the match, and then took the lead with an early break in the decider.

One more driving response from Lucas saw a break back occur and ultimately a tie break required to determine the quarter finalist from this epic clash.

It was Nadal who fought back from 3 points to 6 down, and he saved three match points.  He couldn't save a fourth and Lucas Pouille reached his second Grand Slam quarter final in succession, winning 6-1 2-6 6-3 4-6 7-6 (6).

Tsonga was responsible for Sock's departure in four sets, and a subsequent dip in his great popularity amongst US fans.  Jo-Wilfried hit 22 more winners than unforced errors, one sure indication of the form he is displaying, and he will need to continue in that vein as his next task is to take down Novak Djokovic.

The top seed has hardly been on court, and he could have been on a practice court for the first two sets against Kyle Edmund, so easy were the games ticking over for him.  Set three was what the crowd was hoping for as the young English player served it up to the world's best, coming from 0-2 behind and breaking the Serb serve twice to lead 3-2.

Snapped out of his lethargy, Djokovic broke back to level, and allowed Edmund just one more game before sealing the win 6-2 6-1 6-4.

There will be at least one French semi finalist because 10th seed Gael Monfils is the quarter final opponent of Lucas Pouille.  Monfils easily accounted for Marcos Baghdatis in straight sets, due in large part to a mountain of errors in the Cypriot game.

Eighth seed Madison Keys yet again promised more than she could deliver at a major, her run cut short in the fourth round by the Caroline Wozniacki revival which continues to roll on.  The Danish Delight dazzled with her speed around the court and while the crowd was disappointed to see another American disappear, it was appreciative of the level of tennis provided by Wozniacki.

Keys attacked - 30 winners to 12 - but Wozniacki was able to defend and draw the mistakes - she committed only 7 unforced errors in the 6-3 6-4 victory, while Keys contributed 33.

In an all unseeded quarter final, Caro will face Anastasija Sevastova.  Sevastova defeated another fancied player, Johanna Konta, the 13th seed, in a match where breaks of serve were common place.  For someone who gave tennis away a few years ago, Sevastova's is a comeback of growing proportions.

The second quarter final which has been decided is that between last year's surprise finalist, 7th seed Roberta Vinci, and 2nd seed Angie Kerber.

Vinci has had a roller coaster year but in this tournament has been rock solid, dropping  just a single set.  Her win against Lesia Tsurenko in the fourth round was anything but easy for one set, which went to a tie break, but once Vinci had won that, the resistance from Lesia seemed to fall away.

Kerber was simply a slight edge better in most departments than Petra Kvitova in the first of the night matches on Day Seven, and winning the first set 6-3 was no surprise. Kvitova raised the stakes in set two, and hit an amazing 25 winners in a great contest for 11 games.  Meanwhile Angie was playing mistake-free tennis on the other side of the net - only 4 winners, but just the same number of unforced errors. (identical to first set stats)

Petra couldn't control her mistakes for the full distance, and sadly at 5-6 30-40 she double faulted and Angie was through to the quarter final 6-3 7-5.

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)

Sock shocks Cilic in NYC

After being given a walkover in his second round match, Novak Djokovic was leading 4-2 in his third round contest when Mikhail Youzhny retired, meaning that the number one seed has reached the round of sixteen without the match practice he was expecting, and that his team was hoping for.

Still, he is there, while some pre tournament threats on his side of the draw are not, and Day Five of the US Open cleared the path of another hurdle in the form of 7th seed Marin Cilic, thumped in straight sets by 26th seeded American Jack Sock, to the delight of the mostly American crowd.

Another seed in Novak's quarter was John Isner, and the 20th seed didn't provide as much joy as Sock for his home audience, dismissed by an increasingly confident Brit, Kyle Edmund, who presents himself as the immediate next challenge for the reigning champion to negotiate.  

So that leaves Jo-Wilfried Tsonga as the highest ranked player, apart from Djokovic, remaining in his quarter, after the popular French player removed Kevin Anderson from calculations.  

In the other quarter of the top half of the draw, 4th seed Rafa Nadal continues to fly the Spanish flag, too accomplished for Russian Andrey Kuznetsov.  However, France won the day over Spain in two other third round matches in that section.

24th seed Lucas Pouille outlasted 15th seed Roberto Bautista Agut in five sets, earning a meeting with Rafa, while 10th seed Gael Monfils needed just three to take out Nicolas Almagro.

Monfils will play Baghdatis in the round of sixteen in what will be guaranteed entertainment for those present.

In one of the finest matches of the tournament to this point, 8th seed Madison Keys was pushed to the limit, and proved she has the mettle to go further in Grand Slam events than she historically has.

Naomi Osaka brought the best out of the American who hit 37 winners in the 7-5 4-6 7-6 victory, a success taking over two hours to complete.

The fourth round encounter will be tough for Keys though because Caroline Wozniacki has rediscovered her very best tennis in the past week.  The twice finalist is a dangerous proposition for anyone left in the field.  Her destruction of Monica Niculescu was clinical.

The other matches in the Keys quarter were won easily by 13th seed Johanna Konta at the expense of 24th seed Belinda Bencic, and Anastasija Sevastova, who followed up her upset of third seed Muguruza with a more expected defeat of unseeded Kateryna Bondarenko.

The upset of Day Five in Women's Singles came courtesy of Ukranian Lesia Tsurenko, who survived a first set deficit to provide the exit directions for 12th seed Dominika Cibulkova.  Ranked 99, Tsurenko has been as high as 33 and she will be anything but easy opposition for 7th seed Roberta Vinci in the round of sixteen.

Vinci began like a house on fire against Germany's Carina Witthoeft, taking the opening set 6-0, but ultimately requiring a third set to win 6-0 5-7 6-3.

The remaining fourth round match in this quarter will be fought between 2nd seed Angie Kerber and 14th seed Petra Kvitova.  Petra avenged her New Haven semi final loss to Elina Svitolina just a week ago with a straight sets win over the 22nd seed.

Kerber wasted 55 minutes and two games in eliminating American qualifier Catherine Bellis.  

The German star won an astonishing 68% of points from the Bellis serve.

The rest of the third round matches are to be played on Day Six and the matches of great interest appear to be Juan Martin Del Potro v David Ferrer and Karolina Pliskova v Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova.  

The locals will be keen to watch the continued progress of American Jared Donaldson.

Ranked 122, he has won through Qualifying (3 matches) and beaten 12th seed David Goffin and Viktor Troicki (a top 40 player) in the first two rounds of the main draw.  His next assignment is Ivo Karlovic.

US Open Day 4 - Rain & Roof

Rain interrupted proceedings on Day four of the US Open and for once at Flushing Meadows there was tennis played despite the weather wanting otherwise.  The dividend from the new roof on Arthur Ashe Stadium began to be paid as, while players scheduled to compete on other courts twiddled their thumbs, Simona Halep battled with Lucie Safarova on the protected Centre Court.

Thankfully, the rain delays were brief enough to allow the completion of the full singles programme, including the impressive victory of fifth seed Halep in straight sets.  Many. breaks of serve occurred in the match, but the chances offered Safarova to remain in contention were repeatedly blown and Simona eventually decided that since her generosity was being wasted, she would simply finish off the job and reach the third round 6-3 6-4.

Andy Murray, serving first and with an early break was quickly leading Marcel Granollers 4-1, before a lapse from the number two seed gave the Spanish player some heart.  A number of chances to level at 5-5 came to nought, and Murray ended up breaking for the set 6-4.  That was all she wrote, the rest of the contest not really a contest and Andy handily into round three 6-4 6-1 6-4.

Expecting to play 30th seed Gilles Simon, Andy will instead meet Italian Paolo Lorenzi who took five sets to knock over the Frenchman.

Another of Murray's expected opponents was to be 16th seed Feliciano Lopez in the round of sixteen, but that won't happen either, as Lopez lost his second round match to unseeded Joao Sousa from Portugal.  Not a huge upset, since Sousa is ranked 36 in the world; more of a shock because of Joao's recent form, losing in the opening round of half his tournaments since Roland Garros.

Juan Martin Del Potro defeated 19th seed American Steve Johnson in straight sets and his third round task will be to relieve 11th seed David Ferrer of his singles duties.  Ferrer in his second round encounter took the long route, finally overcoming Fognini in five sets.

Thiem, Wawrinka and Kyrgios all won in straight sets, and could well, given current form, together with Delpo, form the basis of two fantastic fourth round matches.

The Williams sisters both succeeded in their second round matches, each requiring the minimum of fuss, but no more convincing than Karolina Pliskova or Carla Suarez Navarro.  

Carla dumped 2008 finalist Jelena Jankovic 6-1 6-4, surrendering her first games for the tournament, while Pliskova is threatening to actually go beyond the third round in a major for the first time in her career.  She showed no mercy to Paraguayan qualifier Montserrat Gonzalez in the first set, sealing it 6-1 and although she eased up to win 6-1 7-5, Pliskova is primed for her next match, a ripper against 18th seed Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova.

No big name casualties like we saw on Day three, although another former US Open champion left the tournament.  16th seed Samantha Stosur, the.2011 winner, was no match for Shuai Zhang, bowing out to the unseeded Chinese player 6-3 6-3.

England's Naomi Broady caused Aga Radwanska some anxious first set moments forcing the fourth seed to a tie breaker which Aga eventually won 11-9, and then the match 7-6 6-3.

Day Five sees the first of the third round singles matches and potential for some great contests - Kvitova v Svitolina, Tsonga v Anderson, Konta v Bencic and Pouille v Bautista Agut  are just some to savour.

Garbine and Milos depart US Open

Winning Roland Garros hasn't exactly been the driver for wonderful subsequent experiences for Garbine Muguruza.  

Her first match after the major triumph on clay was a loss on grass to 61st ranked Kirsten Flipkens.  She followed this with a second round exit at Wimbledon to 124th ranked Jana Cepelova.

A third round loss at the Olympics preceded Garbine's return to some form in Cincinnati where she made the semi finals losing to eventual winner Karolina Pliskova.

Included among her Cincinnati wins was Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, ranked 18 and the only top 20 player successfully negotiated by Muguruza since the French Open.

The US Open continued the woes for the Venezuelan-born Spanish star, seeded number three.  She was dumped in two sets by Latvian Anastasija Sevastova.

In a day and night of the biggest upsets so far this tournament, American Ryan Harrison, who was the nation's great young hope a few years back, injected much hope and even more delight into the crowd with his excellent win over fifth seed and Wimbledon runner-up Milos Raonic.

Ryan is smiling, but also happy is Nadal who would have been preparing to face the Canadian. In the last eight.

Womens number nine seed and 2004 champion here, Svetlana Kuznetsova, fell to twice runner-up Caroline Wozniacki.  The Danish delight has been out of form for most of this year, and for the rest of the time she has been injured.  The former world number one has fallen in the rankings to 74, and when trailing 0-4 appeared set to fall further.  

However her sparkling display against Sveta, winning the next seven games, reminded us of the talent Wozniacki possesses.  Her constant attack and blinding pace worried the Russian into too many errors, and apart from a stumble when serving for the match at 6-4 5-3, Caro flew sweetly into the third round 6-4 6-4.

Rafa Nadal thrashed Andreas Seppi in sets one and three, and won a tighter middle set.to complete his progress.

Other Spanish success came through the victory achieved by Roberto Bautista Agut,  who dismissed Argentine Federico Delbonis in four sets.

It didn't make up for the Muguruza disaster, which was compounded somewhat by 31st seed Spaniard Albert Ramos-Vinolas losing his match. 

Other seeds not surviving the second round were Pablo Cuevas (18) and Benoit Paire (32).

Novak Djokovic had the easiest path to round three after Jiri Vesely could not contest their match due to injury.  Other not quite so easy but nevertheless destructive displays came from  Cilic, Keys, Monfils, Vinci, Bencic and Sock.