Day Five: British winners, record crowds

October 23, 2018

Day Five: British winners, record crowds

Originally published on 03/09/16 00:00

Two points make the difference

Madison Keys was two points away from exiting her home Grand Slam as 18-year-old Naomi Osaka showed once again what a great talent she is. Down 1-5 in the third set Keys turned the match around and reached the fourth round equaling her best performance here last year.

“I’m definitely going to sit down later and work on some things for the next round because I don't want to be two points from losing again. I am really looking forward to trying to have straightforward matches.”

Every other day

Petra Kvitova, who beat Elina Svitolina in straight sets, revealed that when she does not have a match she prefers to stay away from Flushing Meadows. She is now one win away from equaling her best finish here last year when she made the quarterfinals.

“I'm happy I'm not a person who has to practice every day.”

Jack sock not foiled by Cilic

No. 26 seed Jack Sock defeated Marin Cilic in straight sets and then did some faux fencing on court afterwards with his racket. It was not a totally random act as he explained afterwards:

“I became good buddies in Rio with one of the fencers, Miles Chamley-Watson. He lives here in New York. I have been trying to get him to come out and watch a match. He was able to come out here today.”

4 out of 6 British victories

Jo Konta beat Belinda Bencic (Third round)

Kyle Edmund beat John Isner (Third round)

Naomi Broady and Shelby Rogers beat Kateryna Bondarenko and Chia-Jung Chuang (First round)

Dan Evans and Nick Kyrgios beat Taylor Fritz and Tommy Paul (Second round)

Heather Watson and Colin Fleming lost their respective doubles matches (First round)

Practice Makes Perfect?

The World No. 1 got a walkover in his first round match against Jiri Vesely and today his opponent Mikhail Youzhny retired with a left hamstring strain trailing Djokovic 2-4. The defending champion spent only 32 minutes on court today.

“It is what it is. I got an extra hour of practice on the center court. They were kind enough to allow me to practice. Got to focus on positives.”

Tactics

Caroline Wozniacki who beat Monica Niculescu for the seventh time in as many meetings smiled as she shared a sneaky tactic afforded by the shade created by the open roof on Arthur Ashe Stadium

“It's kind of nice sometimes when it's hot to be standing in the shade. I'm like, oh, it's probably 15 degrees cooler here than it is on the other side, so I'll just let her run a little bit more.”

Milestone

Marcos Baghdatis put an end to American qualifier Ryan Harrison’s US Open and took his place in the fourth round of the US Open for the first time. Having reached the fourth round in the three other Grand Slams, this was a career first for the 31 year old.

People will come

There was a record attendance of 40 280 for the day session and 25 006 for the evening. That's a whopping combined total of 65 286.

How the draws look now:

Fourth round men’s draw (top)

Novak Djokovic vs. Kyle Edmund

Jo Wilfried Tsonga vs. Jack Sock

Rafa Nadal vs. Lucas Pouille

Gael Monfils vs. Marcos Baghdatis