Spanish second seed Alcaraz breezed past Italian 32nd seed Luciano Darderi in emphatic fashion<\/a>, winning 6-2, 6-4, 6-0 on the Arthur Ashe Stadium.<\/p>\nAlcaraz\u2019s one hour 44-minute victory sends the 2022 US Open champion into a meeting on Sunday against France\u2019s Arthur Rinderknech, who defeated compatriot Benjamin Bonzi 4-6, 6-3, 6-3, 6-2.<\/p>\n
Alcaraz is aiming to finish the season on a high after winning the French Open in June before losing in the final of Wimbledon last month.<\/p>\n
The five-time Grand Slam singles champion opened play on the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center\u2019s main court, and admitted he had been nervous about his 11:30am local time start.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not an early morning person so it\u2019s difficult for me to wake up in the morning,\u201d Alcaraz said. \u201cOne of the good things today though I woke up early, did the warm up and felt good.<\/p>\n
\u201cStarting at 11:30 my first goal is to start well with a good energy and rhythm. I played great tennis, good performance so I\u2019m proud of that.\u201d <\/p>\n
Alcaraz needed a medical timeout while leading 5-4 in the second set for treatment on his right knee, but later said he had no injury concerns.<\/p>\n
In the night session, 38-year-old Novak Djokovic moved closer to a possible semi-final showdown with Alcaraz with a 6-4, 6-7 (7-4), 6-2, 6-3 victory against Britain\u2019s Cameron Norrie, where he too took a medical timeout.<\/p>\n
Djokovic grabbed at his back after he appeared to overextend when making an overhead volley late in the first.<\/p>\n
In his on-court interview he joked about how his body his holding up saying \u201cyeah it\u2019s okay\u201d, and later adding \u201cdon\u2019t want to give too much away to the rivals who are listening\u201d.<\/p>\n
The seventh-seeded Serbian legend is chasing a record 25th Grand Slam singles title in New York, where he has won four times before, and with his defeat of Norrie, Djokovic became the oldest man to reach the final 16 at Flushing Meadows since Jimmy Conners in 1991.<\/p>\n
He also broke the record for most grand slam wins on hard courts, as it was his 192nd career triumph at the US and Australian Opens.<\/p>\n
In other men\u2019s draw action, Czech 20th seed Jiri Lehecka sailed into the next round with a 6-4, 6-4, 6-4 defeat of Belgium\u2019s Raphael Collignon.<\/p>\n
In the women\u2019s draw, meanwhile, world number one Aryna Sabalenka advanced to the fourth round after extending her remarkable streak of tie-break victories to defeat Canada\u2019s Leylah Fernandez.<\/p>\n
Reigning champion Sabalenka punched her ticket to the last 16 after seeing off Fernandez 6-3, 7-6 (7\/2) in one hour 39 minutes on the Louis Armstrong Stadium.<\/p>\n
Sabalenka\u2019s decisive second set victory was capped by her 18th consecutive tie-break win.<\/p>\n
The victory was also sweet revenge for Sabalenka, who suffered an upset defeat to then teenager Fernandez in the semi-finals of the 2021 US Open.<\/p>\n
\u201cI wanted this revenge badly,\u201d Sabalenka said afterwards. \u201cIt was a tough lesson for me back then. Since then, we never played again.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just wanted to prove to myself that the lesson was learned and that I developed as a player and I could get this win.\u201d Sabalenka attributes her dominance of tie-breaks this season to a tougher mental approach.<\/p>\n
\u201cI definitely think that mentally I\u2019m pretty strong, and I\u2019m still growing, because I\u2019m learning a lot of lessons, and all of those lessons making me tougher, tougher, and tougher,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Asked if she believed her opponents were aware of her tie-break record, she replied: \u201cI hope so. I\u2019m not focusing on that during the match, obviously. But extra pressure on my opponents? I love that.\u201d The skilful Fernandez, the 31st seed, had started brightly, earning four break points on Sabalenka\u2019s opening service game of the first set.<\/p>\n
Crucially though Sabalenka saved them all before holding, and then took advantage in the fourth game when Fernandez double-faulted to hand the Belarusian a break for a 3-1 lead.<\/p>\n
That break was all Sabalenka needed to close out the set.<\/p>\n
A tense second set saw Fernandez continue to cause problems for Sabalenka, who again was forced to fight off a break point in the sixth game.<\/p>\n
But when the set went to a decisive tie-break, there only ever looked like being one winner, with Sabalenka scoring three mini-breaks in rapid succession to help open up a 4-1 lead.<\/p>\n
That soon became 6-1 and Sabalenka sealed a win that sees her into a fourth round showdown with unseeded Spaniard Cristina Bucsa.<\/p>\n
Sabalenka is aiming to become the first woman to successfully defend the US Open since Serena Williams won a hat-trick of titles in 2012, 2013 and 2014.<\/p>\n
Fernandez reached the final of the US Open in 2021, where she was beaten by Britain\u2019s Emma Raducanu — the only player in history ever to win a Grand Slam singles title after emerging through qualifying.<\/p>\n
Raducanu\u2019s hopes of another fairytale run in New York came to a juddering halt on Friday when she was steamrolled in straight sets by Kazakh ninth seed Elena Rybakina, losing 6-1, 6-2.<\/p>\n
Rybakina will face 2023 Wimbledon champion Marketa Vondrousova in the fourth round after the Czech ousted Italian seventh seed Jasmine Paolini 7-6 (7\/4), 6-1.<\/p>\n
In other women\u2019s draw matches, American fourth seed Jessica Pegula comfortably defeated Victoria Azarenka 6-1, 7-5 to reach the fourth round, where she will face compatriot Ann Li after she defeated Australia\u2019s Priscilla Hon in straight sets<\/a>.<\/p>\nBelgian 19th seed Elise Mertens, a two-time US Open quarter-finalist, meanwhile exited in three sets, upset by Spain\u2019s Cristina Bucsa 3-6, 7-5, 6-3.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"America\u2019s hopes of ending their 22-year men\u2019s drought received a double blow on Saturday morning AEST as Ben…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":105950,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[73512,2095,76103,17739,64464,4909,64,63,689,21693,70421,1804,72675,2065,76116,76110,76113,76102,63943,2057,76112,70415,76109,74455,2592,5717,49772,74452,21590,76108,76105,76114,1025,73577,2041,2067,3583,3592,677,76115,76111,23745,6413,3495,76106,85,76104,76107,76118,3586,2614,76117,2062,3205],"class_list":["post-105949","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-adrian-mannarino","tag-america","tag-american-man","tag-andy-roddick","tag-ann-li","tag-aryna-sabalenka","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australia-and-new-zealand","tag-ben-shelton","tag-benjamin-bonzi","tag-billie-jean-king","tag-billie-jean-king-national-tennis-center","tag-canada","tag-career-matches","tag-course-interview","tag-demon-powers","tag-draw-action","tag-elise-mertens","tag-europe","tag-evening-session","tag-fairytale-run","tag-final-grand-slam","tag-flushing","tag-france","tag-germany","tag-injury-concerns","tag-kingdom-of-the-netherlands","tag-leylah-fernandez","tag-marketa-vondrousova","tag-medical-timeout","tag-morning-person","tag-new-york","tag-night-game","tag-north-america","tag-northern-america","tag-northern-europe","tag-novak-djokovic","tag-oceania","tag-opening-half-hour","tag-possible-semi-final-showdown","tag-queens","tag-serena-williams","tag-shoulder-injury","tag-singles-champion","tag-sports","tag-straight-sets","tag-straights-sets","tag-time-start","tag-united-kingdom","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-victoria-azarenka","tag-western-europe","tag-zealand"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105949","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=105949"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105949\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/105950"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=105949"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=105949"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=105949"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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