Rublev's departure, Nadal's trick and Osaka's defeat: results of the eighth day of the US Open

The defeat and rise of Rublev

There will still be no first appearance of two Russians in the quarter finals of the Grand Slam tournament. Andrei Rublev could not overcome the barrier of the fourth round, losing in it to the Italian Matteo Berrettini. The fight for the title will continue only Daniil Medvedev, who is waiting for a meeting with Stan Wavrinka.

The last time Rublev played with a young Italian in February, when he was still ahead of him in the ATP ranking, and then won in two sets. Since then, Berrettini made a leap forward, won two tournaments and was able to seeded at the US Open. Rublev due to injuries was forced to miss a lot of time and returned to a fairly high level only by the end of summer.

The meeting on the court of Louis Armstrong did not immediately ask for the Russian tennis player. In the first installment, Berrettini won five games in a row, driving an opponent around the court. Somehow Rublev was able to grope his rhythm in the second set, but the Italian brought this part to his advantage. An equal fight between tennis players happened only in the third set. When Berrettini wanted to serve for the match with a score of 6: 5, Rublev took the opponent’s serve, switching the game to a tie-break. Tennis players scored fairly evenly, but at the last moment of the 24th racket of the tournament they managed to earn one matchball, and then realize the second.

Berrettini was the first Italian in 42 years to reach the quarter finals of the US Open. The last to achieve this was Corrado Baradzutti. The 23-year-old tennis player will now meet with Gael Monfils, who gave away only five games in a match with Pablo Andujar.

Rublev can also be proud of his performance in New York. Over the past year and a half, he won only one match at the Grand Slam tournaments, but now he was able to reach the fourth round, beating Stefanos Tsitsipas and Nick Kiryos on the way to him. For the first time since August last year, Rublev will be in 37th place in the ATP ranking (or 38th if Grigor Dimitrov defeats Roger Federer in the quarterfinals).

Nadal's Crazy Kick

In one of the matches of the 1/8 finals of the US Open, two ex-champions of the tournament came together. Rafael Nadal met with Marina Cilic, who won the Flushing Meadows five years ago. The holder of three titles has so far experienced the most serious resistance at the tournament of 2019, but he defeated the Croat in four sets and went further, at the same time leading the ATP tour championship race, which became possible after Novak Djokovic refused.

After exchanging the starting games, Nadal did not leave his opponent a chance of success. Of the 15 games in the third and fourth sets, he won 12, and the Spaniard earned his matchball with an incredible blow to bypass the net, after which the golfer Tiger Woods, who came to support Nadal, jumped up from his seat. The Spaniard for the 40th time in his career reached the quarterfinals of Grand Slam tournaments.

For his future rival Diego Schwartzman, this will be the third experience of playing in the quarter finals of the “major”. In the fourth round, the Argentinean beat the sixth racket of the world Alexander Zverev from Germany. Schwartzman, who last week played only nine sets, had two more forces to draw “donuts”, while Zverev spent 14 intense games against frivolous rivals.

The German tennis player had enough strength for one more set, but then he completely stopped serving well. For the match, the 22-year-old player made 17 double mistakes - for a match of this level this is an overwhelming amount. It was not difficult for Schwartzman to make breaks, and on his pitch he played confidently enough to arrange a ticket to the quarterfinals.

The change of the first racket in women

Naomi Osaka did not manage to defend the titles of the champion of US Open and the first racket of the world. She lost all this after losing to Swiss representative Belinda Bencic, who beat the Japanese for the third time this season.

Osaka did not give cause for alarm until the 11th game, in which she could not keep her serve. The Swiss immediately seized the chance and won the first set. The next opportunity to catch on someone else's feed, she did not have to wait long. With the score 2: 2 Bencic earned a triple break point, followed by a double error. A coach came to Osaka, but he had no influence on her game. Although the Japanese woman completed nine aces, and her rival not a single one, the match remained for Bencic, who first played in the US Open quarter-finals five years ago, when she was 17 years old.

The defeat of Osaka meant that the first racket of the world instead would be Ashley Barty, who also finished playing in the fourth round of the US Open. The failure of the Japanese has led to the fact that for the fourth time in history, the leaders of male and female ratings have not reached the quarterfinals of the “major”.

Against Bencic in the next match will play Croatian Donna Vekic. She beat Julia Gerges from Germany in a stubborn duel, who failed to intimidate her opponent with a powerful serve and 21 aces. The match ended with a score of 6: 7, 7: 5, 6: 3 and became one of the longest in the US Open women's draw.

The End of American Tales

In the fourth round, two tennis players finished their performance, whose success especially pleased local fans. Thanks to the invitation, Kristi Ahn got to the US Open for the first time in 11 years and was able to win her first victories in Grand Slam tournaments, and Taylor Townsend started her ascent from qualification and managed to beat the fourth racket of the world to Simone Halep. However, they did not manage to reach the quarter finals.

An lost large to Elise Mertens. The Belgian tennis player, seeded under the 25th number, gave the American only one game in each set. An had a lot of break points, which she did not use, while Mertens was lucky on the opponent’s pitch. The Belgian was important to leave the court as soon as possible - she needs to save energy for the doubles tournament, in which she also reached the quarter-finals.

Townsend resisted much longer in the match with 19-year-old Bianca Andreescu, but still the winner of two tournaments of the Premier series, who did not reach the third round of the Majors earlier, reached the US Open quarter-finals.

The girls had to close the eighth day of competition and finish their meeting already deep after midnight. Andreescu won the first set, even with terrible statistics on the pitch, but was still punished for it in the second, when due to a double mistake she lost the game with a score of 4: 5. The Canadian tennis player of Romanian descent pulled herself together in the decisive game and made a breakthrough, quickly winning five games. Townsend escaped with four matchballs, but in the fifth admitted defeat.