NEW YORK, Sep 5: US Open defending champion Carlos Alcaraz went to work and eased past Italian Matteo Arnaldi 6-3 6-3 6-4 on Monday to reach the quarter-finals.
Through the first week of the season’s final Grand Slam, the world number one has been putting in routine shifts and dropped only one set en route to the last eight.
But the second week is the business end of a Grand Slam when the draw has thinned out and serious contenders surface. He will next face either Italian sixth seed Sinner or 12th seeded German Alexander Zverev.
Alcaraz has not shown his best yet on the New York hardcourts but like a hot Wall Street stock the Spaniard is trending in the right direction. There have been a few hiccups and lapses but the 20-year-old’s raw talent, power and repertoire of weapons make him the man to beat and he is on track for another showdown with arch rival Novak Djokovic.
Under a closed roof on Arthur Ashe Stadium, Alcaraz was solid from the start against a man who was playing in the Flushing Meadows main draw for the first time.
It took a few games for Alcaraz to size up his opponent but once the Spaniard did it was pretty much one way traffic. Alcaraz took charge with a break for a 4-2 lead in the first set and then broke again at the start of the second to find himself 2-0 up.
The feisty Italian had his moment in the third set, breaking Alcaraz at 2-1, but the Spaniard immediately broke back and then broke again to seal victory.
Later Arnaldi confirmed what most already knew – he could see no holes in Alcaraz’s game.
Medvedev gets an ‘early’ win
After two late-night matches at Flushing Meadows third seed Daniil Medvedev finally finished work ‘early’ on Monday by taming Australian Alex de Minaur 2-6 6-4 6-1 6-2 to move into the US Open quarter-finals for the fourth time in five years.
Medvedev has been working the graveyard shift at the US Open, with his previous two matches starting one day and ending early the next, but after a sluggish start he stepped into high gear to speed past 13th seeded De Minaur.
Sabalenka overwhelms Kasatkina
Second seed Aryna Sabalenka eased past Daria Kasatkina 6-1 6-3 to make the US Open quarter-finals for the third year in a row on Monday, subduing her opponent with her powerful forehand inside Arthur Ashe Stadium.
Australian Open champion Sabalenka will rise to the top of the WTA rankings when they are updated after the tournament and was playing with the confidence of a world number one as she pounded Kasatkina with 31 winners. She will play No. 23 Zheng Qinwen on Wednesday for a spot in the semifinals. Zheng, a 20-year-old from China, was responsible for eliminating Jabeur, who’s been sick, by the score of 6-2, 6-3 to reach a Grand Slam quarterfinal for the first time.
Keys took care of Pegula 6-1, 6-3, while Vondrousova beat unseeded American Peyton Stearns 6-7 (3), 6-3, 6-2.
Fan ejected from match
A fan was ejected from a U.S. Open tennis match early Tuesday morning after German player Alexander Zverev complained the man used language from Adolf Hitler’s Nazi regime.
Zverev, the No. 12 seed, was serving at 2-2 in the fourth set of his match against No. 6 Jannik Sinner when he suddenly went to chair umpire James Keothavong and pointed toward the fan, who was sitting in a section behind the umpire.
“He just said the most famous Hitler phrase there is in this world,” Zverev told Keothavong. “It’s not acceptable.”
Keothavong turned backward and asked the fan to identify himself, then asked fans to be respectful to both players. Then, during the changeover shortly after Zverev held serve, the fan was identified by spectators seated near him, and he was removed by security.
Former U.S. Open runner-up Alexander Zverev beat sixth seed Jannik Sinner 6-4 3-6 6-2 4-6 6-3 late on Monday to move into the quarter-finals of the year’s final Grand Slam.
Rublev hoping for success
Andrey Rublev dispatched the last Briton Jack Draper 6-3 3-6 6-3 6-4 to reach the U.S. Open quarter-finals and then go back to the drawing board to figure out a way to clear the next hurdle.
Getting to the last eight is nothing new for the Russian, who has now made it to the quarters of a Grand Slam nine times but on each occasion so far that is where his journey has ended.Rublev has run into a quarter-final brick wall at three US Opens, tripped up by Rafa Nadal in 2017, Daniil Medvedev in 2020 and Frances Tiafoe in 2022.(Agencies)
