A day of missed opportunities against the backdrop of a sensation from Khachanov: how Medvedev, Samsonova and Kudermetova flew out of the US Open

Karen Khachanov presented, perhaps, the main surprise to Russian tennis fans at the current US Open.

So far, he has become the only domestic athlete who managed to get into the quarterfinals of the tournament.

Andrei Rublev can still keep him company: his meeting with Cameron Norrie will take place on the night of Monday to Tuesday, Moscow time.

But the first racket of the world, Daniil Medvedev, again failed to cope with Nick Kiryos and will leave the tournament ahead of schedule.

Khachanov was the first to enter the court on Sunday.

The match began discouragingly for the Russian - he lost his serve in the first game and, despite all his efforts, could not make a reverse break, which allowed the Spaniard to complete the set in his favor.

The 26-year-old Muscovite began the second game more confidently and not only immediately took the lead, but also earned two break points on the Spaniard's serve.

If he hadn’t made a mistake in length when performing a passing shot, he would have developed an advantage much earlier.

And so I had to wait for the sixth game, in which Karen made the opponent falter in a protracted shootout from the back line.

Carreno-Busta was generally quite often lost under pressure, which largely predetermined the result of the game - 6:3 in favor of Khachanov.

Pablo spent the third set absolutely toothless.

He did not succeed either on the pitch or on the reception, and the Spaniard seemed to play out the ending at all, saving energy for the next set.

The American public even at some point began to boo the athlete.

During the break, Carreno-Busta invited a doctor to the court, who measured his pulse, and also gave him some medicine.

Probably, the hot weather affected the well-being of the tennis player.

After medical assistance, the Spaniard managed to level the game and began to resemble himself, and even Khachanov decided to give him a gift in the middle of the game, losing the pitch to zero.

Karen could not realize his own three break points, and the opponents had to use the fifth game to determine the winner.

It was decisive game on the pitch of the Spaniard with a score of 2:3, which lasted almost ten minutes.

On his move, Carreno-Busta eliminated the break point, earned "more", but then lost three points in a row, and with them the game.

The Russian then took his serve to zero and could complete the meeting in the next game, but did not convert two match points.

However, a few minutes later, Karen made it to the quarter-finals, putting an end to the match with a spectacular serve.

The result of the meeting is 4:6, 6:3, 6:1, 4:6, 6:3. 

At a press conference, Khachanov admitted that he was a little nervous before the start of the tournament, since in recent years he had not been very successful at the US Open, but from the very first match he felt confident in his abilities, which only intensified from meeting to meeting.

“With Pablo, we always get incredibly difficult matches.

Physically prepared to play as best as possible throughout the fight.

I ended the previous three meetings with Pablo in my favor, which initially gave me confidence.

I think he is now showing some of the best results of his career, he won the Masters in Montreal.

It was a tough battle ... I'm really happy to win, ”the ATP official website quotes the tennis player as saying.

The Russian reached the quarterfinals of the Grand Slam tournament for the third time.

Previously, he succeeded at Roland Garros in 2019 and at Wimbledon in 2021.

However, Khachanov will have to fight in the next round not with Medvedev, but with Kiryos, who has again stood in his way.

The compatriot, unfortunately, could not defend the title won last year, and next Monday he will be forced to concede the first line in the world ranking.

Experts expected that Medvedev's match with the Australian would be difficult.

It was enough to remember that the Australian won three head-to-head confrontations out of four, and also blocked Daniil's path three weeks earlier at the tournament in Montreal.

The first set of the fight turned out to be the most spectacular and intense.

Tennis players exchanged spectacular blows on the back line, as well as aces - both made nine innings right through.

In the middle of the game, Kiryos made a break and led 4:2, but Daniil immediately returned the serve, and then restored the balance in the account.

As a result, the game went to a tie-break, where the Russian had three set points, none of which he could convert.

The Australian won the extra game 13:11.

Even then it became clear that the first racket of the world is experiencing problems with the pitch.

Even taking into account the abundance of aces, the percentage of hits by the first ball was catastrophically low for a match of this level - 59 against 71 for Kyrgios. 

During the break, Nick went to the sub-tribune room, and this did not seem to have the best effect on his concentration.

In the very first game on his pitch, the Australian made three double faults and naturally lost it.

Medvedev, on the other hand, confidently took his serve, and then made another break - 5:1.

But the next game on his pitch, he spent very badly.

However, the advantage of the Russian was sufficient to prevent Kiryos from returning to the game and bringing the set to victory - 6:3.

In the third installment, the Australian began to resort to his usual shocking methods.

At one point, he slipped, reaching for the ball, fell flat on the court and did not get up for a long time.

Daniel even approached him to make sure everything was in order.

The audience, by the way, enthusiastically met this gesture of the Russian.

Kiryos, on the other hand, continued to play as if nothing had happened, and in the next draw he made another trick.

After Daniel launched a candle, which obviously went out, the Australian ran into someone else's half of the court and hammered the ball into the floor.

The point, however, after that went to Medvedev, because after his hit the ball did not touch the surface, and Kiryos reprimanded the judge for this decision for a long time.

One way or another, the Australian got the much-needed emotional boost and made a break at the next pitch.

The minimum advantage was enough for him to bring the set to victory - 6:3.

And the fourth game has become a real nightmare for the first racket of the world.

The Australian outplayed him on all fronts.

He moved better around the court, got all the blows, served with almost no errors and simply pulled the opponent with short ones.

Daniel's first serve still didn't go well, and Kiryos coped effortlessly with the second one.

At some moments, the Russian looked absolutely confused and helpless.

As a result, the game ended with a score of 6:2 in favor of the Australian, who reached the quarterfinals of the US Open for the first time in his career.

At the end of the match, Medvedev explained his defeat by feeling unwell.

According to him, he caught a cold because of the working air conditioners.

He also noted that his game plan included depriving the opponent of the opportunity to use the “serve-go to the net” tactics. 

“At one point, I felt that maybe I was getting too close to the net.

Therefore, I began to act a little further, but in such a way that, as it seems to me, he could not use this tactic properly, and at the same time I had more time to receive.

In general, I think my reception was not so bad.

But I should have done better.

It's not always easy.

And it was necessary to play better on the back line.

This is also not easy.

He played well, ”the tennis player said at a press conference.

According to Daniil, Kiryos held a meeting at the level of Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic and maintains a good chance for the title.  

There were no representatives of Russia left in the women's part of the tournament.

In the matches of the fourth round, both Lyudmila Samsonova and Veronika Kudermetova were defeated.

Samsonova met with the offender of Serena Williams - Ayla Ayla Tomlyanovich.

The Russian woman had a great chance to win the first game: she led 5:3 and served a set, but made a whole series of unforced errors and allowed Tomlyanovic to close the gap in the score.

In the next game, which lasted for a long 18 minutes, Lyudmila had seven set points, but she could not succeed.

As a result, the game ended with a tie-break, in which Tomlyanovic prevailed - 10:8.

An insulting defeat in a set, which at some point seemed to be won, completely unsettled Samsonov.

In the second game, she showed rare glimpses of a spectacular game, but basically she made a lot of mistakes, sending the ball out of bounds every now and then.

During the match, she made 56 unforced errors, which is two times more than that of her opponent.

According to a similar scenario, the match between Kudermetova and Ons Zhaber developed.

The Russian also led in the first game with a 5-2 break, but then lost three games in a row.

The game also turned into a tie-break, where Veronika could not oppose anything at all - 1:7.

In the second set, the Russian woman tried to immediately take the submission of the representative of Tunisia, but she did not allow this to be done.

For more than ten minutes, the girls fought in the first game, but he remained for Zhaber.

On her serve, Kudermetova equalized the score, but then again lost three games in a row.

In general, the Kazan native played the second game very unstable - she made many mistakes and attacked little.

In terms of actively won balls, she lost to Ons more than three times - 5 against 17.

However, for both Russians, reaching the fourth round of the US Open in itself was a personal achievement.