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Caroline Wozniacki is just one win away from returning to a Grand Slam final for the first time since 2009, while Roger Federer and Tomas Berdych both returned to the quarter-finals of the US Open after both fell in the fourth round last year.
In the bottom half of the women’s draw, tenth seed Wozniacki continued her impressive resurgence by blasting past Italy’s Sara Errani in straight sets, dropping just one game in the process.
It sees her return to the semi-finals of a Grand Slam tournament for the first time since, as the world number one, she was defeated in straight sets by Serena Williams in the last four at Flushing Meadows in 2011.
She next faces China’s unseeded Peng Shuai who thrashed Switzerland’s Belinda Bencic in straight sets. She became the third player from her country (after Zheng Jie and Li Na) to get this far at a Grand Slam tournament.
Her showdown against Wozniacki will mark their seventh meeting overall, with Peng’s only victory coming in their very first meeting at Toronto in 2007. Since then, the Dane has won the last six meetings in succession.
The top half women’s quarter-finals will be decided overnight with Serena Williams and Victoria Azarenka both favoured to move through to the semi-finals, where they will meet if results unfold as expected.
The pair met in the last two finals with Williams winning both in three sets, but the draw this year have them grouped in the top half, and a loss for Azarenka will be fatal as far as her current ranking of 17 is concerned.
Ekaterina Makarova, who faces Azarenka in the third of the four women’s quarter-finals, is just one place below the Belarussian in the rankings at 18. She enters the match on the back of a straight-sets victory against Canada’s Eugenie Bouchard.
Williams, on the other hand, faces Flavia Pennetta in the night session. The Italian is the first seed the world number one will face after having coasted through the early rounds without dropping a set or facing a seed.
Meanwhile, the men’s bottom half quarter-finals have been decided and as expected Roger Federer and Tomas Berdych have moved through to the last eight with straight-sets victories over Roberto Bautista-Agut and Dominic Thiem respectively.
The Swiss maestro, facing a Spaniard for the second consecutive match, was rarely troubled as he returned to the final eight after being shockingly ousted by Tommy Robredo in the round of 16 last year.
He will next face France’s Gael Monfils who dumped Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov out in straight sets, this coming two days after his girlfriend Maria Sharapova was sent packing by Caroline Wozniacki on Monday morning (AEST).
Monfils, who reached the quarter-finals of the French Open earlier this year when he lost to Andy Murray in five sets, will be playing in his second US Open quarter-final after previously losing to Novak Djokovic at this stage four years ago.
The pair met just recently at Cincinnati with Federer winning in three sets. The previous meeting before that saw Monfils pull off an upset three-set victory at the Shanghai Masters late last year.
Berdych ended the run of Austria’s Dominic Thiem in straight sets to break the fourth-round barrier in New York for only the second time, after previously reaching the semi-finals in 2012.
Standing in the way of him and a possible semi-final showdown against Federer is Croatia’s Marin Cilic, who also returns to the quarter-finals at Flushing Meadows after missing last year’s tournament due to a drugs suspension.
Cilic, whose two quarter-finals in New York ended in defeats to eventual champions Juan Martin del Potro and Andy Murray in 2009 and 2012 respectively, outlasted Frenchman Gilles Simon in five sets and will be seeking to reach his first Grand Slam semi-final since the 2010 Australian Open.
The top half men’s quarter-finals will be played overnight, in addition to the last of the women’s quarter-finals, with Stan Wawrinka facing off against Kei Nishikori and Novak Djokovic locking horns with Andy Murray in a rematch of the 2012 final.
Will it be Djokovic and Federer facing off in the final for the second consecutive Grand Slam tournament, or will there be an upset along the way? And can Caroline Wozniacki continue her good form and reach her first Grand Slam final since 2009?
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