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The men’s and women’s quarter-finals have been set at the US Open as we edge closer to crowning our final Grand Slam champions for season 2018.
Before we get to that, let’s recap what happened on Day 8 at Flushing Meadows.
Of course, the tennis world is buzzing following unheralded Australian journeyman John Millman recording a stunning upset over 20-time Grand Slam champion Roger Federer.
The result is being hailed as the greatest upset in recent tennis history, with Federer having won nearly a hundred titles (98 to be exact) to Millman’s zero.
True to form, the Swiss Maestro shot out to a 3-0 lead in the opening set and all appeared set for a regulation night in the office when he won it 6-3, then had two set points at 5-4 in the second.
However, Millman – who, prior to Tuesday morning (AEST), had never won a match at New York, let alone against a top ten player – turned the match on its head when he reeled off three games in a row to take the second 7-5.
The 29-year-old then took the third set in a tiebreak, before Federer surged to a 4-2 lead in the fourth, as the match looked set to head to a 1am one-set shootout.
However, Millman Broke to get it back on serve, forcing a tiebreak. A double mini-break was then enough for him to claim a four-set victory and progress to his first Grand Slam quarter-final, where he will next face world number six Novak Djokovic.
Roger Federer (Photo by Clive Mason/Getty Images)
To get this far at a Major, in New York no less, is testament to his will to survive on the ATP World Tour, having endured injury after injury to the point where, in April 2014, he had a world ranking just inside the top 1200.
He spent years toiling in the lower levels of the sport and had to sleep on the floors of train stations, gathering enough funds to travel the world playing the sport he loves.
Prior to this breakthrough win, Millman had already made history when he double-bageled Ricardis Berankis in the first round of the 2016 Rio Olympics – marking the first time anyone had won a match in such fashion.
He also became just the second Australian to defeat Federer at a Major, after Patrick Rafter did so at the 1999 French Open – the Swiss Maestro’s Grand Slam debut.
In between, Federer has inflicted as much misery on Australians as anyone could imagine, including defeating Mark Philippoussis to win his first Major title, at Wimbledon in 2003, and most recently handing Nick Kyrgios a tennis lesson in the third round at Flushing Meadows.
Yet he still remains a fan favourite at the Australian Open, where he has saluted six times.
His historic loss to Millman marks the first time he has lost to a player ranked outside the top 50 in Queens, but it’s the second time he has fallen to a player ranked outside the top 50 at a Major, having gone down to Sergiy Stakhovsky in the second round at Wimbledon in 2013.
And with that, not only does he miss out on a quarter-final showdown against Djokovic, the gap between he and Rafael Nadal in the rankings could grow bigger should the Spaniard successfully retain his title.
Djokovic, for his part, defeated Joao Sousa in straight sets earlier in the day to progress to the last eight in New York for the tenth consecutive time, dating back to 2007 (he missed last year’s tournament due to injury).
The Serb will fancy his chances of reaching another US Open final; not only is Federer out of his way, he has also never lost a quarter-final match here.
The other bottom-half quarter-final sees Marin Cilic take on Kei Nishikori in a repeat of the 2014 final, won by the Croat.
The two top-half quarter-finals get underway this morning (AEST), with Rafael Nadal taking on Dominic Thiem in a repeat of June’s French Open final, while 2009 champion Juan Martin del Potro is up against the last American man standing, John Isner, in the other.
Prior to Federer’s defeat, history was made as, after 22 straight wins under the lights of Arthur Ashe Stadium, Maria Sharapova suffered her first loss in a night match at the US Open, losing to Spaniard Carla Suarez Navarro in straight sets.
The Russian was broken six times from ten service games as she fell short of the quarter-finals for the second consecutive year. It means there will be no first-time championship showdown between her and Serena Williams in New York.
Suarez Navarro now faces American Madison Keys, also a straight-sets winner over Dominika Cibulkova, in the last eight.
Japan’s Naomi Osaka won the battle of the WTA’s rising stars, defeating Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus in three sets. She next faces Lesia Tsurenko, who continued on her giant-killing run by defeating Marketa Vondrousova, also in three sets.
This morning’s top-half women’s quarter-finals sees Serena Williams facing Karolina Pliskova, and Sloane Stephens taking on Anastasija Sevastova, with both Americans favoured to win and set up a tantalising semi-final against each other.
The clash between Williams and Pliskova will be the first since the 2016 US Open, when Pliskova upset Williams in the semi-finals; it was that result which saw the American lose the world number one ranking shortly before falling pregnant towards the end of the year.
Matches to watch on Day 9:
Arthur Ashe Stadium
Day session – play starts at 12:00pm (2:00am AEST)
[3] Sloane Stephens (USA) vs [19] Anastasija Sevastova (LAT)
Not before 1:30pm (3:30am AEST)
[3] Juan Martin del Potro (ARG) vs [11] John Isner (USA)
Night session – play starts at 7:00pm (9:00am AEST)
[17] Serena Williams (USA) vs [8] Karolina Pliskova (CZE)
[1] Rafael Nadal (ESP) vs [9] Dominic Thiem (AUT)
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