GENEVA: Novak Djokovic celebrated his 37th birthday on Wednesday with a much-needed win as he gears up for his French Open title defense, progressing to the Geneva quarter-finals.
The world number one downed Germany’s Yannick Hanfmann 6-3, 6-3 in the second round at the Parc des Eaux-Vives grounds.
Djokovic took a wild card to play in Geneva in a bid to rescue an alarming dip in form ahead of next week’s French Open, the second Grand Slam of the year.
The crowd sang “Happy Birthday” to Djokovic as a cake with candles was brought out onto the court following his win.
He lifted the cake and showed it off to the crowd, having a nibble before offering some to the ball boys and girls.
Djokovic celebrates 37th birthday with much-needed win
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Djokovic celebrates 37th birthday with much-needed win
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- The crowd sang “Happy Birthday” to Djokovic as a cake with candles was brought out onto the court
Sinner avoids US Open trapdoor as Swiatek moves into last 16
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- Australian Open champion Sinner raced past 87th-ranked Christopher O’Connell 6-1, 6-4, 6-2
NEW YORK: Jannik Sinner avoided plunging through the US Open trapdoor which claimed Novak Djokovic and Carlos Alcaraz when he stormed into the last 16 on Saturday as fellow world number one Iga Swiatek stayed on course for a second New York triumph.
Australian Open champion Sinner raced past 87th-ranked Christopher O’Connell 6-1, 6-4, 6-2.
The 23-year-old Italian’s win came a day after four-time champion Djokovic was sent spinning to his earliest loss in New York in 18 years by Alexei Popyrin.
One day earlier, 2022 winner Alcaraz was defeated in the second round by Dutch journeyman Botic van de Zandschulp.
“Today was great match. I knew I had to play very solid. My serve worked well so I am happy with my performance,” said Sinner after firing 15 aces in his 46 winners past outclassed O’Connell of Australia.
Sinner did not face a single break point in his one-hour 53-minute victory which took him into the last 16 for a fourth successive year.
“There have been some upsets in the tournament so let’s see what’s coming. I’m happy to still be here and play as many matches as possible,” added Sinner whose comfortable afternoon on Arthur Ashe Stadium saw tennis legend Serena Williams among the spectators.
Sinner will take on 14th seed Tommy Paul for a quarter-final place after the American defeated Canadian qualifier Gabriel Diallo in four sets.
There were 14 breaks of serve in that tie with Diallo, ranked a lowly 143 in the world, undone by 77 unforced errors.
Four-time French Open champion Swiatek was equally dominant as Sinner as the top-seeded Pole eased into the fourth round with a 6-4, 6-2 victory over Russia’s Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova.
The 23-year-old didn’t face a single break point and will face another Russian, Liudmila Samsonova for a quarter-final place.
“I like the night sessions but it’s noisy so I need to focus on my job and stay inside my bubble,” said Swiatek who shot a long hard stare at her opponent when a ball was speared toward her early in the second set.
“Anastasia is really powerful, she serves fast so I needed to use my intuition of where the ball was going.”
With Djokovic and Alcaraz heading home to Europe, Daniil Medvedev finds himself as the only former champion left in the men’s tournament.
The eccentric Russian, seeded five, faces Flavio Cobolli, the world number 31 from Italy.
Medvedev famously shattered Djokovic’s bid for a rare calendar Grand Slam when he captured the 2021 title in New York.
This year he was runner-up to Sinner at the Australian Open and made the semis-finals of Wimbledon but is without a tour title since winning the Rome Masters in May last year.
If Medvedev makes the fourth round for the sixth straight year he’ll face unseeded Nuno Borges of Portugal who saved three match points in a five-set triumph over Czech teenager Jakub Mensik.
Britain’s Jack Draper reached the last 16 for a second successive year by defeating Alcaraz’s conqueror Botic van de Zandschulp 6-3, 6-4, 6-2.
Meanwhile, 2023 semifinalist Karolina Muchova, who knocked out two-time champion Naomi Osaka in the second round, cruised into the last 16 by beating Anastasia Potapova 6-4, 6-2.
She next faces French Open and Wimbledon runner-up Jasmine Paolini, the fifth-seeded Italian, who beat Yulia Putintseva 6-3, 6-4.
Paolini has now made the fourth round of all four Slams this year having previously never got beyond the second round in 16 attempts.
“I’m a fan of her (Muchova). I really love how she plays. She can play every shot, slice, volleys, serve and volleys. She’s a very complete player,” said Paolini.
US sixth seed Jessica Pegula made the second week for a third successive season by defeating Jessica Bouzas Maneiro 6-3, 6-3.
Pegula next faces Diana Shnaider, the 18th-seeded Russian who made the fourth round of a Slam for the first time by seeing off 37-year-old Sara Errani in straight sets.
Czech Republic’s Tomas Machac, ranked 39, also reached the fourth round of a major for the first time by defeating Belgian veteran David Goffin 6-3, 6-1, 6-2.
He will take on Draper for a spot in the quarter-finals.
Djokovic falls to Popyrin in latest US Open shocker
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- Djokovic delivered four double faults in dropping his serve to trail 5-2
NEW YORK: Novak Djokovic’s latest bid for a record 25th Grand Slam title crashed to a halt as 28th-ranked Alexei Popyrin knocked the defending champion out of the US Open third round.
One day after third seed Carlos Alcaraz slumped to a shock defeat against 74th-ranked Botic van de Zandschulp, 25-year-old Popyrin robbed the tournament of another superstar with a 6-4, 6-4, 2-6, 6-4 victory.
Popyrin handed Djokovic his earliest US Open exit in 18 years and his earliest Grand Slam exit since he fell in the second round of the Australian Open in 2017 — which was also the last year the Serbian great failed to claim a single Grand Slam title.
Although he won the Olympic gold he had long coveted at the Paris Games, an uneven season that included knee surgery saw Djokovic come up empty in the majors.
He had beaten Popyrin in three prior encounters, including at the Australian Open and Wimbledon this year.
But a career-high 14 double faults — 49 unforced errors total — were too much for Djokovic to overcome.
“It was just an awful match for me,” Djokovic said. “I mean, I tried so many things, and sometimes that’s an issue ... you move away from the basics that work. You lose the foundation. You lose the movement, the timing, the rhythm, the tempo, everything, whether it’s a serve or any other shot.”
Popyrin, coming off the biggest title of his career at the Montreal Masters, saved five break points in the sixth game of the match, swinging fearlessly to seize the first two sets.
Djokovic gave himself some breathing room with an early break in the third. Popyrin clawed back only for Djokovic to break him twice more, the Serbian taking full advantage of Popyrin’s mounting errors.
But the Aussie responded in a tense fourth set, saving break points in the second game before breaking again for a 3-2 lead.
He stayed patient as Djokovic saved three break points and when the Serbian double faulted to gift him another Popyrin capitalized with a blistering forehand winner and let out a massive roar.
Djokovic delivered four double faults in dropping his serve to trail 5-2. He won the next two games, but Popyrin claimed the match with a love game.
“I was waiting for him to kind of step up,” Popyrin said.
“I didn’t want to be one of those moments where Novak kind of stepped up and came back from two sets to love down. It was kind of extra motivation for me not to do that and to win that fourth set.”
Popyrin will next face Frances Tiafoe, who beat fellow American Ben Shelton 4-6, 7-5, 6-7 (5/7), 6-4, 6-3 in a pulsating afternoon contest on Arthur Ashe Stadium.
Tiafoe avenged a quarter-final loss to Shelton in New York last year, withstanding 23 aces with a brilliant return display that saw him muster 21 break points and convert five.
That included one break in each of the last two sets.
World No. 6 Andrey Rublev of Russia beat Czech Jiri Lehecka 6-3, 7-5, 6-4 and eighth-seeded Norwegian Casper Ruud rallied from two sets down to beat 19-year-old Shang Juncheng of China 6-7 (1/7), 3-6, 6-0, 6-3, 6-1.
Sabalenka wins latest-starting match in US Open history that finally begins after midnight
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- The runner-up last year in Flushing Meadows eventually finished off the victory at 1:48
- Sabalenka and Alexandrova were kept on Ashe, finally getting on the court after defending champion Novak Djokovic was shocked by No. 28 seed Alexei Popyrin in four sets
NEW YORK: Aryna Sabalenka finally got rolling after a bad beginning to the latest-starting match in US Open history, regrouping to beat No. 29 Ekaterina Alexandrova 2-6, 6-1, 6-2 early Saturday to reach the fourth round.
The No. 2 seed didn’t get underway until 12:07 a.m. and had dropped the first set barely a half-hour later. But she seized control early in the second set, winning 10 straight games to open a 5-0 lead in the third.
The runner-up last year in Flushing Meadows eventually finished off the victory at 1:48, tied for the second-latest ending to a women’s match at the US Open, and advanced to face No. 33 seed Elize Mertens on Sunday.
“I was happy that I was able to stay focused, no matter what, and I was able to turn around this match,” Sabalenka said.
The previous latest start to a women’s match at the US Open was exactly at midnight on Sept. 2, 1987, with Gabriela Sabatini going on to beat Beverly Bowes 6-3, 6-3.
The night session at Arthur Ashe Stadium began more than an hour after its usual 7 p.m. starting time following Frances Tiafoe’s victory over Ben Shelton in the afternoon that lasted 4 hours, 3 minutes.
Under a new late-night match policy the tournament debuted this year, the tournament referee can move any match that hasn’t gone on by 11:15 p.m.. Instead, Sabalenka and Alexandrova were kept on Ashe, finally getting on the court after defending champion Novak Djokovic was shocked by No. 28 seed Alexei Popyrin in four sets.
A US Tennis Association spokesman said tournament officials kept the Grandstand available in the event they wanted to move the Sabalenka-Alexandrova match. A decision was going to be made by the end of the fourth set of the Djokovic-Popyrin match.
Sabalenka said her desire was to remain on Ashe, though she would prefer it be in the opener of the night session and put the men second.
The bigger problem was the quick start by Alexandrova, who broke Sabalenka’s serve twice in the first set.
“She just crushed it. She played so well,” Sabalenka said.
But once Sabalenka broke for a 3-1 lead in the second set, she got going quickly from there to wrap it up earlier than the latest end of a women’s match, when Maria Sakkari finished off Bianca Andreescu at 2:13 a.m. on Sept. 6, 2021.
Sabalenka hoped to be in bed by 4 a.m. and sleep as long as she could.
“Technically, I did my practice session today, so I’m good for tomorrow, right?” she joked. “Can I just tell my team that? It’s 2 a.m.; we count it like today.”
Frances Tiafoe tops Ben Shelton in an all-American US Open rematch and now could face Novak Djokovic
Frances Tiafoe tops Ben Shelton in an all-American US Open rematch and now could face Novak Djokovic
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NEW YORK: Frances Tiafoe solved Ben Shelton’s big serve and played brilliantly at the net to win their all-American rematch at the US Open 4-6, 7-5, 6-7 (5), 6-4, 6-3 on Friday and get back to the fourth round at Flushing Meadows for the fifth consecutive year.
A year ago in New York, Tiafoe was eliminated by Shelton in four sets in the quarterfinals. The year before that, Tiafoe — who loves the tournament’s spotlight and its electricity — defeated Rafael Nadal on the way to the US Open semifinals, the best Grand Slam showing of his career.
After getting past Shelton in a match that lasted 4 hours, 3 minutes, Tiafoe spread his arms wide and looked around at the thousands cheering in Arthur Ashe Stadium. The two pals then met at the net for a hug and a lengthy chat.
“I’ve got to say, Ben’s an incredible player, man. He’s an incredible player. He really is. He goes for all kind of shots. He’s got no care in the world. It’s really annoying. ... He’s really talented. He can come up with great shots. So can I,” Tiafoe told spectators during a postmatch interview. “It’s highlight after highlight. I hope you guys enjoyed the show.”
Up next for Tiafoe could be 24-time Grand Slam champion Novak Djokovic next. Djokovic, the defending champ at Flushing Meadows, was scheduled to play No. 28 Alexei Popyrin in the third round on Friday night.
A lot of people were figuring Shelton vs. Tiafoe would be at night, but instead it was in the afternoon, and began in front of a sparse crowd because the stands emptied at the conclusion of the previous encounter, 2023 champion Coco Gauff’s victory over Elina Svitolina.
Shelton, a 21-year-old from Georgia, was seeded 13th. Tiafoe, a 26-year-old from Maryland, is 20th. They’re both part of a group of five Americans in the top 20 of the ATP rankings, making some think the country’s long wait for a men’s champion at a major could end someday soon. Andy Roddick’s 2003 US Open trophy was the most recent Slam title for an man from the United States.
The highest-ranked US man at the moment, No. 12 Taylor Fritz, moved on with a 6-3, 6-4, 6-2 win against Francisco Comesana of Argentina and now will take on three-time Slam finalist Casper Ruud of Norway or Juncheng Shang of China.
Another men’s fourth-round matchup established Friday was No. 6 Andrey Rublev vs. No. 9 Grigor Dimitrov.
Shelton, a left-hander, hadn’t lost serve even once in two wins this week before Friday and did manage to produce 23 aces, reaching 143 mph. But Tiafoe accumulated a whopping 21 break points — the most any opponent ever has against Shelton — and converted five. The last made it 3-1 in the fifth set.
The other key? Tiafoe kept charging forward, and he kept putting away volleys. He won 35 of 48 points when he made it to the net. And, as usual, Tiafoe played to the fans, breaking out his “Salt Bae” celebration after one point.
Tiafoe hasn’t always excelled at five-setters: He was just 6-13 in matches that went the distance before Friday. Shelton was 6-2. But none of that mattered on this occasion. Tiafoe came through, and an even greater challenge could await.
No. 1 seeds Sinner, Swiatek move into the third round at US Open; Alcaraz, Osaka eliminated
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- No. 5 seed Daniil Medvedev, the 2021 US Open champion, moved into the third round along with No. 10 Alex de Minaur
- The No. 5-seeded Paolini, who has reached the finals of the French Open and Wimbledon in her breakout season, advanced past the second round of the US Open for the first time
NEW YORK: Iga Swiatek and Jannik Sinner flashed their No. 1 form on Thursday with powerful performances that moved them into the third round of the US Open.
Carlos Alcaraz and Naomi Osaka couldn’t quite find the games that once had them on top of the rankings.
Those past US Open champions were both knocked out Thursday night, with the No. 3-seeded Alcaraz’s 15-match Grand Slam winning streak halted by a 6-1, 7-5, 6-4 loss to 74th-ranked Botic van de Zandschulp.
Swiatek raced by Japanese qualifier Ena Shibahara 6-0, 6-1, finishing off the match in 65 minutes. It took the 2022 US Open champion longer than that to play the second set of her first-round match, when she needed a tiebreaker that she eventually closed out in 72 minutes.
“I just felt the rhythm was much better,” Swiatek said. “I was a bit tense in my last match, so today I just wanted to focus on the right things.”
Earlier, Sinner downed Alex Michelsen 6-4, 6-0, 6-2 in 1 hour, 39 minutes.
But on the same Arthur Ashe Stadium court at night, Osaka’s forehand faltered in key moments and the two-time US Open champion was eliminated by Karolina Muchova 6-3, 7-6 (5).
Sinner dropped the first set in his opening match in New York but didn’t encounter much trouble while facing his second straight American on Ashe. The Italian earned his 50th victory of the season, including his ATP Tour-leading 30th on hard courts.
His previous one was a little shaky after a slow start against Mackie McDonald, so Sinner got in a practice session after that match and was happy with the results Thursday.
“Trying to keep going, trying to understand what works here best on these courts. Let’s see what I can do in the next round,” he said.
That will be against Christopher O’Connell of Australia on Saturday.
No. 5 seed Daniil Medvedev, the 2021 US Open champion, moved into the third round along with No. 10 Alex de Minaur, who will next face Dan Evans. Evans’ victory in a tidy 2 hours, 37 minutes was three hours quicker than it took him to beat Karen Khachanov in the first round, their match setting a US Open record by lasting 5 hours, 35 minutes.
Sinner beat Michelsen for the second time this month, having also won a second-round match in Cincinnati shortly before it was revealed that he tested positive twice for an anabolic steroid in March.
Another Italian, Jasmine Paolini, played just three points before advancing when Karolina Pliskova appeared to injure her left foot. The No. 5-seeded Paolini, who has reached the finals of the French Open and Wimbledon in her breakout season, advanced past the second round of the US Open for the first time.
“Finally, we made third round!” she said with a laugh during an interview on the court.
Paolini will next play No. 30 seed Yulia Putintseva.
Other women’s winners included No. 6 Jessica Pegula, No. 15 Anna Kalinskaya, No. 16 Liudmilla Samsonova and No. 18 Diana Shnaider. Pegula took out fellow American Sofia Kenin.
But No. 4 seed Elena Rybakina, the 2022 Wimbledon champion, withdrew from the tournament before her second-round match with a lower back injury, sending French qualifier Jessika Ponchet to the weekend.
“Unfortunately, I have to withdraw from my match today due to my injuries,” Rybakina said in a statement. “I did not want to finish the last Grand Slam of the year this way but I have to listen to my body, and I hope I can close out the remainder of the year strong.”
No. 7 seed Hurbert Hurkacz was eliminated in straight sets by Jordan Thompson, and No. 16 Sebastian Korda was knocked out by Tomas Machac.