Alexander Zverev reached the quarter-finals of the US Open as he defeated Italy’s Luciano Darderi in straight sets on Monday.<\/p>\n
The top-seeded German cruised through the opening two sets before fending off a Darderi fightback in the third to win 6-2 6-2 7-6(3).<\/p>\n
It would mark the first time Zverev has finished a match before midnight in New York this tournament having played four successive night-session matches, including two five-setters.<\/p>\n
The 2020 finalist, who has previously finished games at times of 1:55am, 2:15am and 1:09am, was able to see the funny side of a rare early night at 11.48pm.<\/p>\n
“I don’t know what to do with \u200bmyself, because it’s before midnight,” said Zverev. “I might go to a practice court, or a bar… that was a joke, so \u200crelax. I’m feeling happy, compared to the first two matches the level has been going up.”<\/p>\n
Twitter<\/p>\n
This content is provided by Twitter, which may be using cookies and other technologies. Unfortunately we have been unable to verify if you have consented to Twitter cookies. Enable Cookies<\/a> Zverev is the only man to reach the quarter-finals of all four Grand Slams this year and will now face Botic van de Zandschulp in the final four following the Dutchman’s win over lucky loser Arthur Gea.<\/p>\n “I \u2060thought that my level was consistent, but he started incredibly well in third set,” Zverev added of his performance.<\/p>\n “I barely saw anyone hit so hard so consistently. He \u2060made it very difficult for me. I’m \u200bhappy to be in the quarter-finals and playing this way.”<\/p>\n Next opponent Van de Zandschulp had denied France’s world No 87 Gea the chance to become the first lucky loser to reach a Grand Slam quarter-final in a 3-6 6-7 (0-7) 7-6 (9-7) 7-6 (7-3) 6-4 win lasting five hours and 13 minutes.<\/p>\n “I think he’s an impressive player,” said Zverev of Van de Zandschulp. “I think this might be his favourite tournament in the world, because I think he made a few quarter-finals here before. Obviously he knows how to play well on these courts, and I look forward to having a tough battle.”<\/p>\n Twitter<\/p>\n This content is provided by Twitter, which may be using cookies and other technologies. Unfortunately we have been unable to verify if you have consented to Twitter cookies. Enable Cookies<\/a> Blockx reaches last eight<\/p>\n Belgium’s Alexander Blockx meanwhile fought through injury to beat Argentina’s Francisco Cerundolo and reach his first Grand Slam quarter-final.<\/p>\n The 28th seed clinched a 6-3 4-6 7-5 7-5 victory before admitting he considered retiring hurt due to a rib issue.<\/p>\n Twitter<\/p>\n This content is provided by Twitter, which may be using cookies and other technologies. Unfortunately we have been unable to verify if you have consented to Twitter cookies. Enable Cookies<\/a> “It was really tough from the beginning of the match. I was struggling a lot, especially while serving. It kept getting worse throughout the match,” said the 21-year-old.<\/p>\n “I was really close to retiring, to be honest. I was just hanging in there, but if I would have lost the third set, I think the chances were really high of me retiring.<\/p>\n “I’m glad that I kept on playing.”<\/p>\n He will now play Karen Khachanov after the Russian’s 7-5, 4-6, 6-7 (6), 6-1, 6-4 win over the USA’s Learner Tien.<\/p>\n The US Open is live on Sky Sports from August 30. Stream tennis with no contract on NOW<\/a> and the Sky Sports App<\/a>. You can also watch the Laver Cup at The O2 in London from 25-27 September live on Sky Sports.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Alexander Zverev reached the quarter-finals of the US Open as he defeated Italy’s Luciano Darderi in straight sets…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":763787,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[101,118,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-763786","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-sports","tag-tennis","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/763786","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=763786"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/763786\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/763787"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=763786"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=763786"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=763786"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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