New York: Only eight contenders remain in both the men's and women's singles draws, with the quarterfinal stage now set. Monday's winners included the Grand Slam-chasing Novak Djokovic, former US Open finalists Karolina Pliskova and Alexander Zverev, and a pair of 2019 semifinalists in Matteo Berrettini and Belinda Bencic. But the most convincing win belonged to 18-year-old Emma Raducanu, who's through to her first career Grand Slam quarterfinal.
Closing the evening's action after 2 a.m. was Maria Sakkari, who battled for three-and-a-half hours to hand Bianca Andreescu her first US Open loss.
Novak's delayed domination: For the third time in four US Open matches, the world No. 1 dropped a set. With that obligatory news flash out of the way, we can get to the real story—the Serb has never truly been in danger this fortnight. But his biggest scare so far came Monday against Jenson Brooksby, who followed a 6-1 opening set with an incredible fight in a second stanza for the ages.
After the American broke to get back on serve at 2-3 in the second, the Serb won 15 of the match's last 20 games to run away a 1-6, 6-3, 6-2, 6-2 winner.
Before Djokovic took out the last remaining American man in the singles draw, Raducanu did the same in the women's bracket by firing past Shelby Rogers, 6-2, 6-1.
Riding a clean streak of 14 sets won in New York—stringing back to her perfect progress through qualifying—Raducanu will next face her first seeded opponent in Olympic gold medalist Bencic. The No. 11-seeded Swiss knocked off No. 7 Iga Swiatek, 7-6, 6-3, after more than two hours of play in Louis Armstrong Stadium.
No. 4 seeds Alexander Zverev and Karolina Pliskova were both straight-sets winners Monday, with Zverev topping No. 13 Jannik Sinner and Pliskova beating No. 14 Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova. All five sets were decided by one break or less as their Top 15 opponents brought their best. But the favouites avoided the upset bug to progress.
Zverev draws the unseeded Lloyd Harris in the quarterfinals, after the South African took out the No. 22-seeded American Reilly Opelka, 6-7, 6-4, 6-1, 6-3, in Armstrong.
Pliskova will face the No. 17 seed Sakkari, who's still standing after her marathon match against Andreescu.
Playing together in New York for the third staight year, Coco Gauff and Caty McNally equalled their career-best Slam showing by reaching the women's doubles quarterfinals. The two-time Australian Open quarterfinalists, seeded 11th here, took a 6-4, 6-4 decision against the No. 8-seeded duo of Andreja Klepac and Darija Jurak in front of a packed Grandstand. Next up: top seeds Hsieh Su-Wei and Elise Mertens.
In men's doubles, the match of the day saw No. 4 seeds Rajeev Ram and Joe Salisbury edge No. 13 seeds Ivan Dodig and Rohan Bopanna, 6-7, 6-4, 7-6. Semifinalists here one year ago, the American-British duo are seeking a second Grand Slam title together, following their 2020 Aussie Open triumph.
The other quarterfinals on the men's side: No. 4 Alexander Zverev of Germany vs. Lloyd Harris of South Africa, No. 12 Felix Auger-Aliassime of Canada vs. 18-year-old Carlos Alcaraz of Spain, and No. 2 Daniil Medevev of Russia vs. qualifier Botic van de Zandschulp of the Netherlands.
The women's round-of-eight matchups: No. 2 Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus vs. No. 8 Barbora Krejcikova of the Czech Republic, No. 5 Elina Svitolina of Ukraine vs. 19-year-old Leylah Fernandez of Canada, No. 11 Belinda Bencic of Switzerland vs. 18-year-old qualifier Emma Raducanu of Britain, and No. 4 Karolina Pliskova of the Czech Republic against No. 17 Maria Sakkari of Greece.
Sakkari beat 2019 champion Bianca Andreescu 6-7 (2), 7-6 (6), 6-3 in a match that ended at 2:13 a.m.
Ousted Shelby Rogers faces back lashes
Shelby Rogers had no shortage of people singing her praises after she upset No. 1 seed Ash Barty.
She knew how much the tone would change after the American followed that by getting routed by Emma Raducanu on Monday.
"Obviously we appreciate the spotlight in those moments. But then, you know, you have today and I'm going to have 9 million death threats and whatnot," Rogers said. "It's very much polarizing, one extreme to the other very quickly."
Rogers jumped to a quick lead and had a break point to go up 3-0, then dropped 11 straight games in a 6-2, 6-1 loss to the 18-year-old from Britain. She said afterward she kind of wished social media didn't exist, because hers was going to be filled with negativity.
"It's a big part of marketing now. We have contracts, we have to post certain things," Rogers said.
"I don't know, you could probably go through my profile right now, I'm probably a fat pig and, you know, words that I can't say right now.
"But, I mean, it is what it is. You try not to take it to heart, and it's the unfortunate side of any sport and what we do."
Sloane Stephens called attention to it by sharing abusive Instagram messages she received after the 2017 champion lost to Angelique Kerber in the third round. She posted that she had received more than 2,000 negative messages after that defeat.
Rogers said players try to ignore that, though it's difficult.
"You know, just focusing on the important things, not comments from people in their mom's basement," Rogers said.
"It's really unfortunate and some of it does get to your head sometimes. I mean, they write some true things sometimes for sure, you're up a break and you have another break point. These are facts.
"But social media can't control what I'm doing and the way my training is going to go moving forward, but I wish it didn't exist. It's really tough."
