U.S. Open Day 5: Live Coverage

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Welcome to live coverage of day five of the U.S. Open. Here are the results so far:

4:25 p.m.

Novak Djokovic got another free pass at the U.S. Open, advancing when his third-round opponent, Mikhail Youzhny, stopped because of injury after only six games.

This came Friday, two days after the man defending champion Djokovic was supposed to play in the second round, Jiri Vesely, withdrew a couple of hours before that match because of inflammation in his left forearm.

Youzhny quit after only 31 minutes while trailing Djokovic 4-2. Earlier, Youzhny received treatment from a trainer for what appeared to be a back problem.

The No. 1-seeded Djokovic moved into the fourth round at Flushing Meadows for the 10th consecutive year.

4:10 p.m.

Marcos Baghdatis beat Ryan Harrison 6-3, 7-6 (4), 1-6, 6-1 to move into the round of 16 at the U.S. Open on Friday, ending the run of the American qualifier who had pulled off the one of the biggest upsets of the tournament.

Harrison had reached the third round of a Grand Slam for the first time when he defeated the No. 5 seed and Wimbledon runner-up Milos Raonic on Wednesday.

For the 44th-ranked Baghdatis, the victory ends a nine-match losing streak in Grand Slam third rounds. It’s his first appearance in a U.S. Open fourth round and the first fourth round at any major since 2009. He will play the winner of the match between 10th-seeded Gale Monfils and Nicolas Almagro.

3:25 p.m.

Eighth-seeded American Madison Keys rallied from down two breaks in the third set for another great escape at the U.S. Open.

Japanese teenager Naomi Osaka twice served for the match Friday, but Keys got the break both times and went on to win in a third-set tiebreaker 7-5, 4-6, 7-6 (3).

The 18-year-old Osaka was wiping away tears on court after she lost her fourth straight game to allow Keys to even the third set at 5-5.

In the first round against 60th-ranked Alison Riske, Keys came back from down a set and a break to win in 2 hours, 26 minutes. Riske had two points on her serve at 5-4 in a second-set tiebreaker to try to close out the match.

The 81st-ranked Osaka was playing in just her third Grand Slam tournament and first U.S. Open, but she made it to the third round at both the Australian and French Opens this year.

Asked on court if this was the best comeback of her career, Keys said: “For sure. Hands down.”

3:15 p.m.

American Jack Sock eliminated 2014 U.S. Open champion Marin Cilic to reach the fourth round at Flushing Meadows for the first time.

The 26th-seeded Sock won 6-4, 6-3, 6-3 on Friday, taking all 14 of his service games and never facing so much as one break point. And he handled the Croatian’s big serve just fine, breaking the No. 7-seeded Cilic on four occasions.

The 23-year-old Sock’s only previous trip to the second week of a Grand Slam tournament came when he got to the fourth round of the 2015 French Open.
Sock is now 2-0 against Cilic, having come back from two sets down to win their Davis Cup match this year.

2:30 p.m.

Ninth-seeded Jo-Wilfried Tsonga is the first men’s player into the round of 16 at this year’s U.S. Open.

Tsonga beat 23rd-seeded Kevin Anderson – a surprise quarterfinalist in 2015 – 6-3, 6-4, 7-6 (4) on Friday. Each player had 13 aces, but Tsonga managed to break Anderson’s serve twice while saving all seven break points he faced.

Anderson upset Andy Murray in the fourth round last year at Flushing Meadows, but he’s struggled with injuries this season.

The U.S. Open is the only major at which Tsonga has not reached the semifinals. He was the 2008 Australian Open runner-up.

1:20 p.m.

Roberta Vinci, last year’s U.S. Open runner-up, didn’t drop a game in the first set, failed to serve out the match in the second, then hung on in the third to keep another run at Flushing Meadows going.

The seventh-seeded Italian needed nearly two hours to top 102nd-ranked Carina Witthoeft 6-0, 5-7, 6-3 in the third round Friday. This is the fourth time Vinci has reached the round of 16 at the U.S. Open – she’s done it just three times combined at the other majors.

And last year, she stunned Serena Williams in the semis to thwart her Grand Slam bid. It was Vinci’s first major final at age 32.

The 21-year-old Witthoeft, who’s been ranked as high as 49th, was looking to make her first Grand Slam round of 16. She’s now 0-5 against top-10 opponents.

Vinci was two points from victory while serving at 5-4 in the second set, but Witthoeft broke back, part of a run of four straight games to even the match. Vinci went up a break to start the third only for Witthoeft to later get the set back on serve. Then Vinci won the last three games to move on.

1 p.m.

Two-time U.S. Open runner-up Caroline Wozniacki has reached her first Grand Slam round of 16 since 2015 Wimbledon.

Her ranking down to No. 74 after an ankle injury and on-court struggles, Wozniacki beat Monica Niculescu 6-3, 6-1 on Friday. It’s the first time since January she’s won three matches at the same tournament.

Against the 58th-ranked Niculescu, who presents an unusual style with a forehand slice, Wozniacki played more aggressively than her normalyeefensive game. Wozniacki is now 7-0 against the Romanian, who was trying to equal her best performance at a major by reaching the round of 16.

12:35 p.m.

Anastasija Sevastova has followed up her upset of Garbine Muguruza by equaling her best performance at a Grand Slam.

About 38 hours after she stunned the French Open champ, the 48th-ranked Sevastova swept past No. 59 Kateryna Bondarenko 6-4, 6-1 on Friday to reach the round of 16 at the U.S. Open. The Latvian also made it that far at the 2011 Australian Open, but in May 2013, she retired after a series of injuries.

Sevastova returned to tennis at the start of last season, and at this year’s Australian Open, she played her first major since 2011. She reached the second round at Melbourne and Roland Garros then lost her first match at Wimbledon as she steadily climbed back up the rankings.

Bondarenko was a U.S. Open quarterfinalist in 2009 but hasn’t been past the third round at a Grand Slam since.

11 a.m.

Three past champions are on the U.S. Open lineup Friday, with Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal and Marin Cilic all seeking to move on to the round of 16.

The No. 1-ranked Djokovic, who experienced problems with his right arm in the first round and didn’t have to play in the second when his opponent withdrew with an injury, takes on 61st-ranked Mikhail Youzhny in Arthur Ashe Stadium.

No. 4-seeded Nadal faces Youzhny’s doubles partner, Andrey Kuznetsov, on Ashe at night, while No. 7 Cilic plays No. 26 Jack Sock of the United States in Louis Armstrong Stadium.

On the women’s side in Ashe, second-seeded Angelique Kerber, the Australian Open champ, faces 17-year-old American qualifier CiCi Bellis. And former No. 1 Caroline Wozniacki – down to No. 74 in the rankings thanks to injury issues and early exits at tournaments – takes on No. 58 Monica Niculescu.

Weather should not be a factor, with sunny skies and temperatures in the high 70s and low 80s.

At French Open, Francisco Cerundolo is mad at chair umpire over Holger Rune’s double-bounce

Susan Mullane-USA TODAY Sports
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PARIS – Francisco Cerundolo of Argentina was devastated about losing his French Open fourth-round match to Holger Rune of Denmark in a fifth-set tiebreaker Monday. He also was mad at chair umpire Kader Nouni for missing a double-bounce of the ball on a point that was awarded to Rune early in his 7-6 (3), 3-6, 6-4, 1-6, 7-6 (10-7) victory.

They were tied at a set apiece and on serve at 2-1 for the No. 6-seeded Rune early in the third at Court Suzanne Lenglen when the point of contention happened. Cerundolo, who was serving at deuce, hit a forehand that skidded low at the baseline and quickly bounced a second time – which normally would have meant that the point was his.

But Rune went ahead and got his racket on the ball, sending it back over the net. At about the same time, No. 23 seed Cerundolo was saying “sorry” to apologize for the odd way his forehand made the ball skim across the clay. Nouni was not immediately aware of the double-bounce, thought the ball was still in play and called Cerundolo for hindrance for talking during a point. That meant Rune got the point, and when he won the next one, too, he had a service break.

“It was unbelievable, because it was a clear double-bounce. I was mad at the umpire because he has to see it,” Cerundolo said. “It’s his fault.”

In tennis, electronic line-calling is used at many tournaments to make line calls, but replays are not used to check things like double-bounces or whether a point should be lost because a player touches the net, which is not allowed.

And while Cerundolo put the onus on the official, he also thought Rune could have ceded the point because of the double-bounce.

“For sure, I wish he would have done that, because it was a big moment,” Cerundolo said.

Rune, who moved into a matchup against No. 4 Casper Ruud in the quarterfinals, said he saw a replay after the following point, and “saw it was a double bounce. But the point already happened, and he called the score. So I felt sorry.”

But, Rune added: “This is tennis. This is sports. Some umpires, they make mistakes. Some for me; some for him. That’s life.”

Gael Monfils withdraws from French Open with wrist injury

Susan Mullane-USA TODAY Sports
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PARIS — A thrilling five-set victory took a toll on Gael Monfils, whose withdrawal from the French Open handed No. 6 Holger Rune a walkover to the third round.

The 36-year-old Frenchman said he has a strained left wrist and can’t continue.

He battled Sebastian Baez for nearly four hours on Court Philippe Chatrier before beating the Argentine 3-6, 6-3, 7-5, 1-6, 7-5 in a first-round match that ended at 12:18 a.m. local time.

The victory was Monfils’ first at tour level this year, as the veteran was coming back from heel surgery.

“Actually, physically, I’m quite fine. But I had the problem with my wrist that I cannot solve,” he said. “The doctor say was not good to play with that type of injury. Yesterday was actually very risky, and then today definitely say I should stop.”

Monfils reached the semifinals at the French Open in 2008 and made it to the quarterfinals on three other occasions.