You’ll want to create some “technical difficulties” and miss a Zoom meeting or two today, as Day 4 presents more than a couple delights. USOpen.org previews the final day of second-round action.
1. Queen of Queens continues journey for major No. 24
After achieving yet another US Open milestone in the opening round, Serena Williams continues her trek for the women’s major singles title record on Thursday.
Williams has never lost a second-round match here (19-0). The six-time US Open champion and four-time finalist improved to 102-13 at her home major on Tuesday, passing Chris Evert for the most US Open wins in the Open era.
Most encouraging, the win against compatriot Kristie Ahn was Williams’ first straight-sets victory since the WTA returned last month. Expect a similar scoreline on Thursday, when the third seed faces Russian Margarita Gasparyan, ranked No. 117.
Williams is 2-0 against the 26-year-old, and has never needed more than 83 minutes to advance past her.
2. Feel-good injury comeback story continues
Medical professionals questioned if he’d ever play again due to his injured hip. His fans largely moved on without him.
Yet here he is, showing determination admired by all and playing in the second round of the US Open. That Andrey Kuznetsov—he’s something, isn’t he?
Of course, we’re talking about the 29-year-old Russian, who’s battled hip injuries since he was a child and missed the past two years and seven months because of the injury.
“At the end of 2017, it became a bit worse... and I was thinking, ‘OK, I have the preseason now. I have six weeks, I could work with the doctor, and it will become better.’ It did not get better,” he told ATPTour.com.
In Queens, however, Kuznetsov, who reached No. 39 in 2016 and has twiced reached the third round here, is playing as if he never spent time away from the sport.
The 6-foot-1 right-hander hit 45 winners in his opening straight-sets win against American Sam Querrey and faces 11th-seeded countryman Karen Khachanov for another place in the third round.
Beware: The fierce-hitting Khachanov also showed some grit in his opener, coming back from two sets down against reigning Next Gen ATP Finals champion Jannik Sinner of Italy.
3. Murray, Auger-Aliassime meet in intergenerational clash
Felix Auger-Aliassime is one of those 20-year-olds who seems like he has already been on tour for decades, his rise was that prominent and that early.
The Canadian’s list of youngest-ever achievements would take up an entire story. Most recently, in February, he became the youngest player to reach his fifth final since an 18-year-old Rafael Nadal in 2005.
Auger-Aliassime’s second-round match might feel like a final for the world No. 21. He will face 2012 US Open champion Andy Murray for a place in the third round.
“He’s a great champion,” Auger-Aliassime said. “I don't want to put into my head or consider that because of the injuries or because of the surgeries he's had, the comeback he's made, that this puts me in an advantage or makes a difference on the outcome of the match.”
Fans, however, can speculate all they want on what impact Murray’s two hip surgeries will have on the match. On Tuesday, the three-time major singles champion needed four hours, 39 minutes to beat Japan’s Yoshihito Nishioka.
“It was a long match, five-setter, [the] first one I played in a long time,” Murray said.
4. Upsets? Mostly chalk in Queens.
Want another reason to get out of the prediction game?
Amid much speculation about upsets, about how higher seeds relied on the crowd more and might suffer from the fanless US Open more so than lower-ranked players, how many upsets have we seen? Not many.
In fact, in the women’s singles draw, seeded players have never done better in New York. No US Open since the 32-seed system was introduced at 2001 Wimbledon has seen more seeds advance to the second round. Seeded women’s singles players went 29-3 in the first round.
It was a similar story in the men’s singles draw, where 26 seeded players advanced to the second round, the same number that did in 2016.
5. Battle of the Belarusians
Postpone your dinner plans or that Zoom chat with relatives, as you’ll want to make time to watch two of the game’s best, both of whom happen to be from Minsk, Belarus, face off in the final match in Louis Armstrong Stadium.
Fifth-seeded Aryna Sabalenka beat two-time Australian Open champion (2012, 2013) Victoria Azarenka in the first round of the US Open a year ago, a three-set affair that took more than two hours.
But during the past two weeks, Azarenka has played her best tennis in years. The 31-year-old mother won the Western & Southern Open last week, her first title since January 2016, and has remained singularly focused this week. She dropped only three games against Austria’s Barbara Haas.
“My mission here is to play tennis and not anything else,” she said.
