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With Maria Sharapova and Jelena Jankovic both crashing out of the US Open on Monday morning (AEST), there is bound to be a surprise finalist from the bottom half of the women’s draw.
Of the four quarter-finalists from the bottom half, two – Caroline Wozniacki and Sara Errani – are former Grand Slam finalists. Wozniacki reached the final at Flushing Meadows in 2009, losing to comeback queen Kim Clijsters, and Errani reached the French Open final in 2012.
They will face off in the quarter-final, which was supposed to pit this year’s French Open finalists, Sharapova and Simona Halep, against each other. Halep exited in the third round, losing to Croatia’s Mirjana Lucic-Baroni in straight sets, while Sharapova fell to Wozniacki in the fourth round in three sets.
Wozniacki has rediscovered her form since losing in the first round of the French Open to Yanina Wickmayer. That followed her sudden split from golfing boyfriend Rory McIlroy back in May after they had proposed at the start of the year.
She reached the semi-finals in Eastbourne, then followed it up by reaching the fourth round at Wimbledon and winning an international-level title in Istanbul.
Having risen back up to 11th in the world, the Dane appears to be rediscovering her best form after a few poor years. She has won only four titles since losing the number one ranking in early 2012.
She also hadn’t reached a Grand Slam quarter-final since the Australian Open that year, where a loss to Kim Clijsters saw her surrender top spot to Victoria Azarenka, but her three-set win over Sharapova on Arthur Ashe Stadium ended that drought.
Her next opponent, Errani, has endured a poor year so far and has not won a title in 18 months. However, with her draw opening up after the aforementioned departures of Halep and Sharapova, this is her best chance to beat her previous best record in New York, where she reached the semi-finals and lost to Serena Williams.
With her involvement in doubles with Roberta Vinci over, the 27-year-old can use the remainder of her time in the singles draw to resurrect her ranking from its current position of 14.
She had started the year ranked seventh, but poor results at most non-clay tournaments this year saw her drop out of the top 10 in April. She also lost in the first round of Wimbledon after holding a match point against Caroline Garcia.
Errani and Wozniacki will face off for the third time, having both traded victories on the way to titles in Portoroz (Errani) and Beijing (Wozniacki) in 2008 and 2010 respectively.
The winner of that tie will face either one of Belinda Bencic and Peng Shuai, both of whom will be playing in their first quarter-final at this level.
Bencic, a two-time junior Grand Slam champion who has rapidly risen up the rankings this year, scored the biggest victory of her career when she stunned former world number one Jankovic under the lights on Arthur Ashe Stadium.
The 17-year-old, who is coached by the mother of Martina Hingis, is the youngest female player since Hingis won the title in 1997 to get this far at Flushing Meadows. Whether Bencic can emulate her efforts from 17 years ago remains to be seen.
Standing in the way of her and a likely semi-final showdown with Wozniacki, who fed her the double-bagel in Istanbul in July, is China’s Peng Shuai, who has risen from the shadows of compatriots Li Na and Zheng Jie.
Peng has claimed the scalps of three seeds en route, including upsetting world number five Agnieszka Radwanska in the second round.
With this match being the first Grand Slam quarter-final for either player, there are bound to be nerves. But who will emerge victorious and go on to play either Caroline Wozniacki or Sara Errani in the semi-finals?
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