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Another year of Grand Slam misery has ended for Rafael Nadal, with 2016 to go down as his worst at the majors since 2004.
The Spaniard will finish this year without winning a Grand Slam title for the second consecutive year; moreover he also failed to reach a quarter-final at this level, and won just five matches (two at the French Open and three at the US Open).
The 30-year-old, whose last major title came at the 2014 French Open, went down in a four-hour, five-set thriller against Lucas Pouille, with the final-set tiebreak lasting an hour and ten minutes.
It was the third consecutive five-set match contested by the Frenchman, and it sends him into a quarter-final showdown against compatriot Gael Monfils, who in had it much easier, beating Marcos Baghdatis in straight sets.
Monfils, who also reached the final eight in New York in 2010 and 2014, and had two match points against Roger Federer in the latter year, will now fancy his chances of reaching just his second Grand Slam semi-final and first since 2008.
However, it will not come easy if the only previous meeting between Monfils and Pouille is anything to go by.
At last year’s Australian Open, Pouille, a wildcard entrant, took the opening set in a tiebreak and then took the second set 6. Monfils appeared to be in huge trouble and was struggling with a niggling injury.
Suddenly, the 17th seed came back to win in five sets, doing so for just the second time in his career.
Back to the present tournament and another Frenchman, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, also advanced to the quarter-finals by beating the last American in the men’s draw, Jack Sock, in four sets. He will now renew hostilities with world number one Novak Djokovic for a place in the semis.
Djokovic, who had only played one completed match in the first three rounds, wasted little time in reaching the last eight at Flushing Meadows for the tenth consecutive year, defeating Great Britain’s Kyle Edmund in straight sets.
The Djoker dominated in the first two sets but after dropping his serve early in the third, stormed back to take it 6-4.
The match finished just after midnight local time after the Nadal-Pouille marathon caused the evening session to be delayed by an hour and a half.
In the women’s draw, Petra Kvitova and Angelique Kerber duked it out over an hour and 28 minutes, with the German emerging victorious in straight sets to reach the quarter-finals at Queens for the first time since her breakthrough run to the semi-finals in 2011.
For Kvitova, the result caps off her worst year at the majors since 2009 and continues a disappointing run in which she has not reached a tournament final since last year’s WTA Finals or won a title since August 2015.
Kerber next faces Roberta Vinci, after last year’s finalist defeated Lesia Tsurenko in straight sets.
The 28-year-old German still has a chance to overtake Serena Williams as the world number one but, at the rate in which both players are performing, may have to beat her in Sunday morning’s (AEST) final to do so.
The other bottom-half quarter-final will be contested by former world number one Caroline Wozniacki and surprise packet Anastasija Sevastova, after the pair scored straight-sets wins over Madison Keys and Johanna Konta respectively.
Wozniacki, now ranked 74th after an injury-plagued 2016, denied Keys a first US Open quarter-final, while Sevastova did likewise to Konta, whose wait to crack the WTA’s top ten will go on for at least another few weeks.
For Sevastova, reaching the quarter-finals marks her best result at a major since she reached the fourth round of the 2011 Australian Open, when she lost to Wozniacki, who was then enjoying the view from the top of the rankings.
The full quarter-final line-up in both the men’s and women’s divisions will be completed by Tuesday morning (AEST).
Matches to watch on Day 8
Arthur Ashe Stadium
Dominic Thiem (AUT) [8] versus Juan Martin del Potro (ARG)
Karolina Pliskova (CZE) [10] versus Venus Williams (USA) [6]
Serena Williams (USA) [1] versus Yaroslava Shvedova (KAZ)
Grigor Dimitrov (BUL) [22] versus Andy Murray (GBR) [2]
Agnieszka Radwanska (POL) [4] versus Ana Konjuh (CRO)
Louis Armstrong Stadium
Carla Suarez Navarro (ESP) [11] versus Simona Halep (ROU) [5]
Iliya Marchenko (UKR) versus Stan Wawrinka (SUI) [3]
Kei Nishikori (JPN) [6] versus Ivo Karlovic (CRO) [21]
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