Rafael Nadal has his game face on at last, the eyebrows threateningly arched, the eyes on fire, all the water bottles lined up like a schoolboy’s toy soldiers. In this most unpredictable of grand slam tournaments the Spaniard finally found the sort of form on day eight that had not been convincingly evident in the first week, and he did enough to encourage the belief that he might have the beating of a shredded field and go on to win his third US Open title on Sunday.
It took the world No1 only an hour and 41 minutes to get rid of the fleetingly brilliant but brittle Alexandr Dolgopolov 6-2, 6-4, 6-1 on Monday to advance to the quarter-finals for the fifth time – his first since 2013, when he went on to overpower Novak Djokovic in a gripping four-set final that finished in a rush.
Nadal’s next assignment on Wednesday is the combative young Russian Andrey Rublev, who put the injured No9 seed, David Goffin, out of his misery in less than two hours on Armstrong, winning 7-5, 7-6 (5), 6-3. The Muscovite teenager, who defeated Aljaz Bedene and Grigor Dimitrov in three sets apiece before having to go to four against Damir Dzumhur, is playing way above his world No53 ranking – and is unrecognisable from the player who could take only five games off Andy Murray at the Australian Open.
Nadal, who turned 31 at Roland Garros, where he won his 10th French Open, said of the 19-year-old Rublev: “When you are young you feel that everything is new. But he already won a lot of matches on the Tour. He’s not a kid that just came now in this event.”
Asked to recall when he was 19, he smiled and said: “If I can come back to 19, I take it. You have a lot more years to enjoy the Tour, a lot more years to enjoy the life. Of course, better be 19 than 31. I always wanted to be young. Even when I was eight years old, I was not very happy when my birthday was to be nine. Still the same. I am 31 and I am not happy when my birthday is going to be 32. I am happy being young, no? I don’t want to get older. For the moment I didn’t find the way to stop that watch.”
The Ukrainian saved four match points in a stubborn last service game but bowed to the inevitable at the fifth time of asking, dumping a backhand into the net. He looked as relieved as Nadal seemed satisfied. It was never a fair fight, despite Dolgopolov getting a couple of looks in the first set.
Elsewhere the final major of the season hangs in a state of suspended animation, with players who expected to be heading for the airport days ago still punching above their weight at the start of the second week and favourites, such as Karolina Pliskova, swinging violently between ordinary and, on a warm, still Monday, irresistible.
Two days after saving match point against Shuai Zhang in a dogfight that lasted 2hr 20min, the world No1 crushed the 22-year-old American overachiever Jennifer Brady in 46 minutes, the quickest completed match of the tournament. Go figure, as they say here.
Brady, ranked 91 in the world, had exceeded all expectations even to reach the fourth round, after victories against Andrea Petkovic, Barbora Strycova and Monica Niculescu. But she can hardly have dreamt that, in her fourth visit to Flushing Meadows, her debut on the tournament’s showcase court on Labor Day in front of a good smattering of her compatriots would end in such public ignominy.
Pliskova allowed her one game, in the first set, putting two aces, 20 unreturnable serves and 23 clean winners past her. The longest rally went 12 shots; 61 lasted less than four. Her press conference went longer than most of the games. This really should not happen in the fourth round of a major.
Yet Pliskova, whose career earnings of $9.2m dwarf the $534,035 her opponent had compiled coming to the tournament, has been as unreliable as the weather. She started well in the first round, giving up three games against the world No72 Magda Linette, but then had to come from behind in two tough three-setters to get past the American qualifier Nicole Gibbs (127 in the world) and Zhang.
“I really wanted to get another chance after being down match point in the last match,” she said. “That helped me get through tough moments and today I felt much better. I think she was probably a little bit nervous, first time on Ashe, and I wanted to take advantage of that.” Brady said of the winner: “She was hitting her spots and hitting her serves well. She came out playing like the No1 player.”
Garbiñe Muguruza holds that place temporarily, by virtue of the points accumulated here before she lost against Petra Kvitova on Sunday. To displace her in the new rankings, announced next Monday, Pliskova has to reach the final, providing Elina Svitolina does not make the semi‑finals. The No4 seed was playing the American Madison Keys in the last night match on Monday.
Pliskova, more pertinently, needs to deliver consistently on her talent and it seemed to be clicking for her in what was no more than a training run; so easy was it, she reckoned her coach would give her a day off before the quarter-finals.
If she plays with the brio and zest that carried her to the final against Angelique Kerber last year, she remains a serious threat. She beat both the Williams sisters in that run, and gave Kerber – who went out in the first round this year – a decent argument over three sets. The ability and the ambition is there; her challenge is tapping into them when it matters. Pliskova plays the American Coco Vandeweghe, the 20th seed, who beat the Czech Lucie Safarova 6-4, 7-6 (2).
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