New York (AFP)
Spanish third seed Rafael Nadal was knocked out of the Flushing Meadows tournament, the last Grand Slam of the Grand Slam, by losing to 22nd-ranked American Francis Tiafoe 4-6, 6-4, 4-6, 3-6, while Polish seed Iga Šviontik followed The first in the world to advance to the final.
It is the first time that the 24-year-old American has reached the quarter-finals at Flushing Meadows, where he will meet Russian Andrey Rublev, and Tiafoe, who previously reached the Australian 2019 quarter-finals, said after the end of the match: “I don’t know what to say, I I do not believe. You played amazing tennis, I don’t know what happened.”
For his part, Nadal, 36, praised his opponent’s performance, saying: “He played well and did a lot of things well. For my part, I had chances, and if I want to be in the quarter-finals, I have to play better than that.”
“You have to be ready to take the opportunities that come your way, and I couldn’t do that. He knew how to do it, and he played with the right determination.”
Regarding the end of the current season, he said: “I need to go home, the past few months have been difficult. I have more important things than tennis to sort out. After that, decisions will be made according to how things go in my personal life, which takes precedence over my professional career.”
Nadal had to wait to consolidate his record of major titles and raise it to 23, knowing that he was crowned two major titles out of three this year in Australia and Roland Garros, to return and withdraw before his Wimbledon semi-final match against Australian Nick Kyrgios due to a severe muscle injury The belly kept him out for more than a month.
Russian Andrey Rublev reached the quarter-finals, beating Britain’s Cameron Norrie 6-4, 6-4, 6-4. Rublev previously reached this role in the American Championship twice, in 2017 and 2020, and will meet Tiafoe in a revenge match because the American eliminated him from the third round of Flushing Meadows last year in a marathon match of 5 groups.
The Russian has achieved several successes since the beginning of the current season by winning three tournaments in Marseille, Dubai and Belgrade, and reached the quarter-finals at the French Roland Garros last June.
Rublev did not find any difficulty in overcoming Nuri with three sets to nothing, when he managed to break his opponent’s serve once in each set, to finish the match in two hours and 26 minutes.
After the match, Rublev said: “I played a good match. I got it in three sets and I’m very happy, Cameron and I have known each other well for a long time and I had to do my best to get past him.”
Italian Yannick Sener reached the quarter-finals of a Grand Slam for the third time this year, beating Belarusian Ilya Ivashka 6-1, 5-7, 6-2, 4-6, 6-3.
In the women’s category, Švientek suffered a difficult start against the unnamed German, world number 100, Yule Niemeyer, losing the first set 2-6 before winning the second and third sets 6-4 6-0, becoming the first player from Poland to reach the quarter-finals of Flushing Meadows. .
In turn, the Belarusian, ranked sixth in the world, Arina Sabalenka, reached the quarter-finals for the second year in a row, where she will face the Czech Karolina Pliskova (22), runner-up in the 2016 edition.
Sabalenka, 24, who is seeking her first title this year, beat American Danielle Collins (19), who reached the final of the last edition of the Australian Grand Prix earlier this year, 3-6, 6-4, 6-2.
Sabalenka confirmed her superiority over Collins with her fourth victory in the same number of matches that brought them together, knowing that she had beaten her opponent in the first round at Flushing Meadows in 2018 and last year in the third round.
The Belarusian overturned a set down and managed to overcome a foot injury to decide the match in her favour, which witnessed a total of 20 direct fouls, including 12 for Collins.
Sabalenka set up a quarter-final match with Pliskova, who had previously struggled to beat fellow countrywoman Victoria Azarenka (26) 7-5, 6-7 (5-7), 6-2.
The 30-year-old Czech qualified for the quarter-finals of Flushing Meadows for the fifth time.
Before facing the final price, the tie dominated the situation between the two players in the confrontations between them, as each of them won four matches, before the Czech, who seemed more aggressive (53 successful strikes against 46), outperformed and decided the match in her favour after 3 hours.