U.S. Open Live Coverage: Day 9

Associated PressSep 6, 2016, 3:21 PM EDT

Getty Images

10:25 p.m.

Novak Djokovic moved into the U.S. Open semifinals for the 10th consecutive year when No. 9 Jo-Wilfried Tsonga stopped because of a hurt left knee, the defending champion’s third opponent to pull out with an injury.

After the top-seeded Djokovic won the first two sets 6-3, 6-2 on Tuesday night, Tsonga was visited by a trainer and had his left leg taped below the knee. Tsonga double-faulted on the opening point of the third set, then retired from the match.

Djokovic’s second-round opponent, Jiri Vesely, withdrew from the tournament with a sore left forearm. The man Djokovic was supposed to play in the third round, Mikhail Youzhny, quit after six games because of a strained left hamstring.

8:25 p.m.

Former No. 1 Caroline Wozniacki reached her fifth U.S. Open semifinal, and first at any Grand Slam tournament in two years, by beating an injured Anastasija Sevastova of Latvia 6-0, 6-2 on Tuesday night.

The 48th-ranked Sevastova twisted her right ankle on the opening point of the second game and clearly was hampered by that. During the changeover after the third game, a trainer examined and taped up the ankle during a medical timeout.

Wozniacki, twice the runner-up at Flushing Meadows, will meet No. 2 Angelique Kerber in Thursday’s semifinals.

It’s been quite a resurgence for Wozniacki, who is ranked only 74th after dealing with injuries and hadn’t won a match at a major in 2016 until last week. But she eliminated 2004 champion Svetlanta Kuznetsova in the second round and No. 8 Madison Keys in the fourth.

Wozniacki’s last trip to the semifinals of a major came in 2014, when she lost the U.S. Open final to her good friend Serena Williams. Wozniacki also was a finalist in New York in 2009, losing to Kim Clijsters. Wozniacki lost in the tournament’s semifinals in 2010 and 2011.

6:20 p.m.

Lopez and Lopez have once again beaten Bryan and Bryan at a major tournament.

The eighth-seeded Spanish doubles team of Feliciano Lopez and Marc Lopez defeated third-seeded Bob and Mike Bryan 7-6 (2), 4-6, 6-3 in the quarterfinals to deny the Bryans their quest for a 17th Grand Slam title. It was a rematch of the French Open final, where the Lopezes also beat the Bryans in three sets.

The Lopezes, who are not related, move on to the semifinals to take on the winner of the match between Spaniards Pablo Carreno Busta and Guillermo Garcia-Lopez and No. 12 seeds Lukasz Kubot of Poland and Alexander Peya of Austria.

Marc Lopez teamed with Rafael Nadal to win the gold medal in men’s doubles at the Rio de Janeiro Olympics.

5:45 p.m.

Roberta Vinci, who stunned Serena Williams on the way to last year’s U.S. Open final, says she will ponder retiring at the end of this season.

After the 33-year-old Italian lost to Angelique Kerber 7-5, 6-0 in the quarterfinals at Flushing Meadows on Tuesday, Vinci was asked by a reporter whether she’d be back in 2017.

“I don’t know. This is the question you’re going to ask me now?” a smiling Vinci said good-naturedly.

A year ago, Vinci beat Williams in the semifinals, then lost to good friend Flavia Pennetta of Italy in the first Grand Slam final for each. Immediately after the match, Pennetta announced she would leave the tour after last season.

Vinci is currently ranked No. 8. She was bothered over the past two weeks by an injured left Achilles tendon and back pain, but still reached her fourth quarterfinal in New York.

“I really don’t want to be someone who says ‘I’m retiring,’ then, after two weeks, ‘No, I’m not retiring.’ ‘I’m retiring.’ ‘I’m not.’ I don’t know. It’s something I’ll need to figure out at the end of the year,” Vinci said in Italian, with a laugh. “Let’s see what I’m feeling and if I have a desire to continue. Putting aside my injuries, I’m playing good tennis.”

4:17 p.m.

Gael Monfils reached his first Grand Slam semifinal since 2008 with a straight-set victory at the U.S. Open over 24th-seeded Lucas Pouille, who upset Rafael Nadal a round earlier.

The 10th-seeded Monfils beat Pouille 6-4, 6-3, 6-3 in an all-French quarterfinal Tuesday.

Monfils had lost six consecutive major quarterfinals since reaching his only previous semifinal, 8 and-a-half years ago at the French Open.

But the entertaining Monfils has been playing the best tennis of his career lately, winning all 15 sets he’s played at Flushing Meadows during this tournament.

Pouille, meanwhile, ran out of steam. He never had won a U.S. Open match until last week and his 4-hour-plus win against Nadal on Sunday was his third five-setter in a row.

1:40 p.m.

Roberta Vinci fell apart after losing the opening set on a foot fault, allowing No. 2 seed Angelique Kerber to take last nine games and win their U.S. Open quarterfinal 7-5, 6-0 on Tuesday.

Kerber, who has a chance to overtake Serena Williams at No. 1 after the tournament, moved into her third Grand Slam semifinal of the year. She won the Australian Open in January, then lost to Williams in the Wimbledon final in July.

At last year’s U.S. Open, Vinci stunned Williams in the semifinals, ending the American’s bid for a calendar-year Grand Slam.

On Tuesday, she was two points away from taking the first set when she served for it at 5-4, but she got broken there. Then, trailing 6-5, and serving at love-40, Vinci was called for a foot fault on a second serve. That resulted in a double-fault that ceded the set. As she walked to the sideline, Vinci looked at the line judge who made the call and smiled sarcastically, giving him a thumb’s up and applauding with her racket.

In the second set, Vinci won only 10 points.

12:35 p.m.

Former No. 1 Ana Ivanovic says she’ll take the rest of the season off because of wrist and toe injuries.

Ivanovic, the 2008 French Open champion, tweeted Tuesday about the decision to step away from the tour until 2017 – making the announcement one week after losing in the first round of the U.S. Open.

She said she has a recurring wrist injury and was advised by her doctor to take time off. In addition, she will have surgery on a toe she broke at the Australian Open in January 2015.

12 p.m.

Novak Djokovic, Caroline Wozniacki and Roberta Vinci will seek to return to the U.S. Open semifinals Tuesday, part of a lineup that also features two Frenchmen battling for a spot in the final four.

The No. 1-seeded defending champ Djokovic takes on ninth-seeded Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, one of three French players in the quarterfinals. The other two, 24th-seeded Lucas Pouille and 10th-seeded Gael Monfils, face off for only the second time. Monfils won the previous meeting in five sets at last year’s Australian Open.

On the women’s side, in a contest of unseeded players, the two-time U.S. Open runner-up Wozniacki plays Anastasija Sevastova, who had never won four straight matches at any major until now.

The other women’s quarterfinal features two top-10 players: second-seeded Angelique Kerber, this year’s Australian Open champ, and No. 7 Roberta Vinci, last year’s U.S. Open runner-up.

The roof on Ashe may be a factor. Forecasts call for partly cloudy skies, blustery winds and a chance of afternoon showers.

Djokovic enters French Open with chance to top absent Nadal with record 23rd Slam title

Associated PressMay 27, 2023, 3:27 PM EDT

Getty Images

PARIS — For quite some time, Novak Djokovic made his long-term goal clear: He wanted to focus on accumulating Grand Slam titles in order to surpass the totals of Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer.

With the French Open set to start without either Nadal (who is injured) or Federer (who is retired) for the first time since 1998, Djokovic finally gets the chance to lead the career standings alone with a men’s-record 23. If he winds up with the championship two weeks from now, Djokovic would break a tie with Nadal and have three more trophies than Federer finished with.

“It’s no secret that one of the main reasons I play today and compete in professional tennis is to try to break more records and make more history in tennis,” Djokovic said. “That’s extremely motivating and inspiring for me.”

His current collection of 22 majors – two at Roland Garros, in 2016 and 2021; three at the U.S. Open; seven at Wimbledon and 10 at the Australian Open, including this January – means he owns 16 more than the other 127 men in the bracket in Paris combined. Stan Wawrinka won three, while Carlos Alcaraz, Daniil Medvedev and Dominic Thiem have one apiece.

“Grand Slams are a different tournament, a different sport, in a way, because you’re playing best-of-five (sets), you are playing in the most important tournaments in the world,” said Djokovic, a 36-year-old from Serbia, “and the experience is on my side.”

It’s why when other players are asked who enters as the favorite in Nadal’s absence, they often mention two names: Alcaraz, who is ranked No. 1 and is 20-2 with a tour-high three titles on red clay in 2023, and Djokovic, who is just 5-3 this season on the surface used at the French Open.

Why point to Djokovic?

“Because Novak has won so many times,” said Casper Ruud, the runner-up to Nadal at Roland Garros and to Alcaraz at the U.S. Open last year. “This year’s clay season has been maybe not what he expected, but I’m sure he has good confidence in myself.”

Djokovic, for his part, pronounced the 20-year-old Alcaraz as “the biggest favorite,” citing “the last few months, and the kind of shape and the form that he’s having – and that I’m having.”

Djokovic is ranked No. 3 and could meet Alcaraz only in the semifinals.

The player with a chance to become the only man in tennis history with at least three titles from each major also mentioned several other contenders, including Ruud, Daniil Medvedev, Holger Rune, Stefanos Tsitsipas, Alexander Zverev and Jannik Sinner.

Djokovic was in something of a contemplative mood on the eve of the event, explaining how much harder things are on his body at this age and that he views each Slam tournament he competes in nowadays “like a present” (leaving aside any discussion of majors he missed because he didn’t get vaccinated against COVID-19).

His most heartfelt comments came when he was asked about Nadal, the 14-time champion in Paris who has been sidelined since January with a hip injury.

After beginning with a joke that made reference to Nadal’s 8-2 edge head-to-head at Roland Garros – “Honestly, I don’t miss him being in the draw, you know” – Djokovic turned more serious.

He reflected on their intertwined paths and said he got emotional when hearing Nadal say 2024 probably will be his final year on tour.

“He’s my biggest rival. When he announced that he’s going to have his last season of his career, I felt part of me is leaving with him, too, if you know what I mean,” Djokovic said.

“I feel that he was one of the most, I would say, impactful people that I have ever had in my career, the growth of my career, and me as a player. Definitely a great motivational factor for me to keep playing and keep competing and keep pushing each other,” Djokovic continued. “Who’s going to achieve more? Who’s going to do better? It made me wonder. It made me think about my career and how long I’m going to play.”

And then he paused and smiled before delivering this line, perhaps for clarity’s sake, perhaps for the laughs he knew it would bring: “I’m not going to make any announcement today.”

Post-Serena, women’s tennis heads to French Open led by Big 3 of Swiatek, Sabalenka, Rybakina

Associated PressMay 26, 2023, 7:20 PM EDT

Getty Images

PARIS — All of those questions about who would step to the fore once Serena Williams walked away from the tennis tour – joining more recent No. 1 Ash Barty in retirement – seem to be getting answered with three names: Iga Swiatek, Aryna Sabalenka and Elena Rybakina.

As the start of the French Open approaches, defending champion Swiatek is ranked No. 1, Sabalenka is No. 2 and Rybakina is No. 4. More to the point, perhaps, with a major trophy up for grabs on the red clay of Roland Garros: This group divvied up the past four Grand Slam titles, the prizes that help define greatness in their sport.

They are showing signs of forming a sort of “Big Three,” and while they’re not yet close, of course, to the level of dominance seen across decades from the so-called “Big Three” of the men’s game – Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic each won more than 20 Slam championships – Swiatek, Sabalenka and Rybakina are beginning to be seen by some as setting up shop atop the WTA.

“They’ve kind of separated themselves a little bit from the rest of the pack,” said Jessica Pegula, a 29-year-old American who is ranked No. 3 and is a five-time Grand Slam quarterfinalist, losing to Swiatek at that stage last year at the French Open and U.S. Open. “It just comes with the confidence of having a lot of big results and breaking through.”

Barbora Krejcikova, the 2021 French Open champion, put it simply: “They are the best three players that we have right now.”

Swiatek, a 21-year-old from Poland, is the reigning champion at Roland Garros and the U.S. Open; Sabalenka, a 25-year-old from Belarus, won the Australian Open this January by beating Rybakina in the final; Rybakina, a 23-year-old from Kazakhstan, won Wimbledon last July.

There’s more: At the two key U.S. hard-court tournaments this spring, Rybakina defeated Sabalenka in the final at Indian Wells, California, then was the runner-up in Miami. When the circuit moved to European clay, Swiatek got past Sabalenka in the final at Stuttgart, Germany, a result that was reversed when they met for the trophy again two weeks later in Madrid.

And at the last big clay tune-up for Roland Garros, Rybakina took the title in Rome after advancing when Swiatek stopped early in the third set of their quarterfinal with a right thigh injury (“Luckily, nothing serious happened,” Swiatek said).

“It’s good for tennis to see the top players consistently doing well. I think it’s pushing everybody to a next level and pushing everybody to do better and to play better. That’s how I was pushed by Iga last season,” Sabalenka said, referring to the way Swiatek compiled a 37-match winning streak that included six titles. “I think that’s something really important and good to see.”

These could be some riveting rivalries, in part because of the contrast in styles and personalities on display.

Swiatek and Rybakina are more reserved publicly. Sabalenka is never shy about letting her thoughts be known.

Swiatek is a master tactician who covers every inch of the court with defense that is as good as it gets. Sabalenka and Rybakina bring as much power as anyone around, starting with intimidating serves.

Rybakina is first on tour in aces this season with 278, a total more than 50 higher than any other woman. Sabalenka is third with 204. Swiatek rates second on tour (among women who have played at least five matches) by winning 48.6% of her return games in 2023.

“It’s nice to have somebody constantly kind of watching you. We played so many matches against each other that tactically we know (each other’s) game pretty well,” Swiatek said. “But we also have to kind of come up with some different solutions sometimes, which is pretty exciting, because I never had that yet in my career.”

And then, thinking about the Federer-Nadal-Djokovic matchups, she continued: “I think this is what the Big Three had to do, for sure, when they played like, I don’t know, 30 matches against each other or even more. So I’m happy to learn some new stuff. And also, for sure, we are all working really hard to kind of play better and better. It is an extra motivation, for sure.”

After defeating Swiatek 6-3, 3-6, 6-3 in the Madrid final three weeks ago, Sabalenka expressed a sentiment that surely is shared by the other two members of this elite trio.

“Hopefully,” Sabalenka said, “we can keep doing what we are doing this season.”