That's it for tonight.
Signing off for the evening as the Arthur Ashe crowd gets ready for a potential barnburner: Juan Martin del Potro vs. Borna Coric. We’ll be back tomorrow evening for Maria Sharapova and Roger Federer’s night matches.
Updated
Sloane Stephens looks relieved to have come through that one comfortably, bearing a big smile on her face in her on-court interview with Pam Shriver. She calls the 22-year-old Mertens a “great, up-and-coming girl” and says she’s looking forward to her next opponent, the 19th-seeded Latvian Anastasija Sevastova. “I think it was 7-6 in the third,” she guesses, correctly, of the scoreline in their 2017 US Open quarterfinal.
Sloane Stephens beats Elise Mertens 6-3, 6-3!
A fine win against a tricky up-and-comer for defending champion Sloane Stephens, who upped her game when she needed to. It wasn’t perfect, but the American got an impressive 83% of her first serves in and converted half her break point chances. Things will get trickier in her next match against the slice-and-dicey Sevastova, and then trickier again should she face Serena Williams in the semifinals.
Second set: Stephens* 6-3, 5-3 Mertens (*denotes server): Stephens is one game away from the US Open quarterfinals and a meeting with Anastasija Sevastova, who she beat 7-6 in the third in that same round last year.
Second set: Stephens 6-3, 4-3 Mertens* (*denotes server): The finish line is in sight for Sloane Stephens, breaking Mertens for the second time this set with that imposing forehand and impenetrable defense.
And here it is:
...Shot
— US Open Tennis (@usopen) September 3, 2018
............of
.................the
.......................match!
Take a bow, @SloaneStephens.#USOpen pic.twitter.com/AoBnDi2KWf
Second set: Stephens 6-3, 2-3 Mertens* (*denotes server): The Belgian holds again, but Stephens hits a simply ridiculous no-look forehand pass at 40-15, raising the decibel level in Arthur Ashe Stadium with a rousing fist-pump and Federer-esque shotmaking. She nearly repeats it on the next point, but comes up short.
Second set: Stephens* 6-3, 2-2 Mertens (*denotes server): Stephens with a comfortable hold to keep apace in set two.
Second set: Stephens 6-3, 1-2 Mertens* (*denotes server): Though these two have relatively similar games, Mertens is fairing better when she keeps the points short with her down-the-line backhand. When the rallies exceed nine shots, Stephens is winning nearly 2/3rds of them. After dropping the last two games, it’ll be interesting to see if Sloane’s level dips or if she can finish this in two. The Stephens of years past was prone to extended 2nd set lulls, though in the last year she’s been closing things out more expeditiously.
Second set: Stephens* 6-3, 1-1 Mertens (*denotes server): Mertens isn’t going away easy and gets the break back.
Second set: Stephens 6-3, 1-0 Mertens* (*denotes server): Stephens, playing impeccable defense and stepping forward when she can, opens the second set with a break of serve. She’s 3/7 on break points, while Mertens is winning just 44% of her 1st serve points.
Sloane Stephens wins the first set 6-3!
The defending champ rounded into form at the end of that set. She hit 16 winners to 9 errors and, most importantly, 82% of her first serves in play. Mertens is still hovering below 50% in that category but is otherwise keeping the errors to a minimum. Sloane is simply grinding her down, getting that extra ball in play, and serving formidably.
First set: Stephens 5-3 Mertens* (*denotes server): Sloane Stephens will serve for the opening set after breaking Mertens a second time. Stephens’ touch and quickness were on display with a brilliant drop-shot/overhead one-two punch that game.
The usually stoic Stephens has taken a lot of flack over the years for what some perceive as a laissez-faire attitude toward tennis. In case anyone needed a reminder how much this title defense means to her, a look at her reaction after beating Victoria Azarenka last round:
Sealed with a 💪@SloaneStephens powers past Azarenka to set up a R4 meeting with Elise Mertens...#USOpen pic.twitter.com/vL6P9H82h0
— US Open Tennis (@usopen) August 31, 2018
First set: Stephens 3-3 Mertens* (*denotes server): Mertens, despite getting her first serve in at a paltry 43%, consolidates the break to even things up. There was very little between these two in the first set of their match, which the Belgian took 10-8 in a tiebreak.
First set: Stephens* 3-2 Mertens (*denotes server): And lickety split, we’re back on serve. Mertens clobbered two returns in that game, one off the forehand on the deuce side, the other off the backhand on the ad.
First set: Stephens 3-1 Mertens* (*denotes server): Stephens, upping the pace as she begins to draw more errors off Mertens’ solid ground game, nabs the first break accordingly after a double fault from the Belgian. The 3-seed hit a rocket of a crosscourt forehand at 15-30 - did anyone catch the MPH on that one?
First set: Stephens* 2-1 Mertens (*denotes server): Stephens with an easy hold. The American looks like she’s settling into this one, hitting with a bit more pop on her forehand and coming into the net when she has the chance.
Last week, my colleague Bryan Graham wrote this sharp piece on the enigmatic world no. 3, who after winning last year’s Open lost nine straight matches. Of course, she followed that up by winning the Miami masters and reaching the French Open finals.
First set: Stephens 1-1 Mertens* (*denotes server): Mertens, the third woman from Belgium to reach a Grand Slam semifinal after hall-of-famers Justine Henin and Kim Clijsters, holds to even things up. We’re through only two games after 12 minutes.
First set: Stephens* 1-0 Mertens (*denotes server): Stephens comes away with a hold in a tough opening game. Mertens had two break opportunities, one of which was saved by a beautiful Stephens serve up the T. Mertens hits the ball hard and fast up the middle, calling to mind the great road warrior Elena Dementieva. This can make things tough for Sloane, who likes to create angles with her running forehand.
Updated
Sloane Stephens has looked so solid in her bid to defend the Open title, especially in her third rounder against Victoria Azarenka (one of the tournament’s best women’s matches so far), but don’t count out Elise Mertens. The 15th seed is having a career year, following up her Aussie Open semifinal with fourth round showings at the other three slams. She also beat Stephens on an American hard-court last month in Cincinnati in their only career meeting by a score of 7-6 (8), 6-2. It’ll be a tough test for Sloane, with a semifinal against Serena looming several steps ahead.
Stephens will be looking to make it 3-0 for the US in singles today after wins by Serena and John Isner, who ran away with the fifth set against Milos Raonic.
John Isner has broken Milos Raonic to take a 2-0 lead in the final set. And in case you’re just getting caught up on this afternoon’s results, Serena Williams toughed out a very high-quality three-setter against the reliable sleeper-pick Kaia Kanepi. She hit 18 aces, many at crucial junctures (including a gutsy second-serve ace up the T in the third set), which is reason to check out Gerald Marzorati’s short piece on the beauty of Williams’ service toss, which he calls “everything a service toss should be at the highest level of the game.” Serena plays 2016 Open runner-up Karolina Pliskova in the quarters.
Hey, all. Jake here. I’ll be with you through tonight’s first match on Ashe, featuring defending champ Sloane Stephens and 22-year-old Belgian Elise Mertens. They’ll be followed by ‘09 champ Juan Martin del Potro and Borna Coric, making his first appearance in the fourth round of a major.
Around the grounds, the crafty and always dangerous Anastasija Sevastova has upset 7th seed Elina Svitolina, bageling her in the deciding set. Also, the fifth set of Raonic/Isner is underway with none of the previous four having gone to tiebreaks, strangely.
Over on Grandstand the women’s match between Sevastova and Svitolina has gone to a deciding third set.
In the men’s draw, it looks like Isner-Raonic is going to five sets. Isner is 2-1 up but Raonic is winning the fourth 4-1. Sloane is due on court at 7pm local time (midnight UK).
Serena has booked her place in the quarter finals. Our report on her three-set win will be here shortly, but until then here’s how Rafael Nadal got on:
Expectations that the US Open quarter-finals would bring together last year’s finalists were shredded on Sunday when Rafael Nadal won after a struggle and Kevin Anderson was a brave but exhausted loser in matches of stark contrast. However there will be a rerun of the French Open final, as Nadal’s opponent on Tuesday is Dominic Thiem.
The Austrian, a first-time finalist at Roland Garros this year, has been strangely out of sorts over the first week of the final slam. A change of surface will probably do the ninth seed no favours against the defending champion as Nadal has been hitting the ball with his customary venom.
Their head-to-head favours Nadal 7-3, the most recent meeting being that final in Paris, when the undisputed master of clay allowed Thiem just nine games in two hours and 42 minutes. In fact they have played all their 10 matches on clay, but Nadal has a pedigree across all the surfaces.
You can read the full report below:
Jake will be here shortly, in the meantime here’s how Roger Federer got on against Nick Kyrgios yesterday:
