That’ll do for this live blog. We’ll have a game-by-game of V Williams v Kvitova coming up in an hour or two. Til then – thanks for reading!
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That was a crazy, crazy match that swung from one way to the other. Stephens had Sevastova on the rack but then the Latvian, struggling with an injury, hit out wonderfully to seize the initiative. A see-sawing final set could have gone either way – in the end it went the way of the home favourite and the crowd inside Arthur Ashe have gone wild.
Sloane Stephens reaches the US Open semi-finals!
The unseeded American has made it – 6-3, 3-6, 7-6 (7-4)! She won that with a brilliant backhand down the line! What a lovely story for a player who only returned from foot surgery in the summer!
Stephens mini-breaks again – two points from the win ...
Stephens goes a mini-break up but then wastes it by firing a gettable backhand wide. 3-2, on serve, in the tiebreak ...
Once again she brings her A game and holds to love. I don’t really know how to explain this match. It will be decided by a tiebreak!
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Stephens recovers from a double fault to hold, and we’re back where we were ... can Sevastova stay in it again?
Tell you what, Sevastova does have nerve! She eases to 40-0, then seals it with another perfect drop shot! It’s the first service game held to love in the match, and how about that for a time to do it! 5-5!
It’s that rarity, a hold from Stephens, and she is now one game from the semis! Will Sevastova’s nerve hold up on serve? She’s done so much to get back into the match and, at one point, look like the only possible winner.
My word ... now Stephens, on break point, gets some luck with a net cord, forcing Sevastova to set up a game-winning dab down the line. 4-4! This one is see-sawing every way possible.
Jamie Murray and Martina Hingis are playing in the mixed doubles now, by the way, against the American/Colombian duo of Spears/Cabal. Can Murray erase the disappointment of earlier?
Not so fast ... now Sevastova takes the initiative again, breaking for 4-3 in a really careless service game from Stephens. The crowd has gone quiet again.
Stephens breaks back! And there are suggestions she is wising up to Sevastova’s eagerness for short points, one drop shot in particular being chased down adroitly as she breaks to 15. From break point down for 4-1, it’s 3-3 – and the crowd, their loudest all afternoon, absolutely love it!
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Stephens, at long last, rediscovers a little more aggression in the next game and recovers from break point down to hold with two crystal-clear winners. She screams her relief. Is she back at it now? 3-2 to Sevastova, with a break.
Sevastova confirms the break after a wild, worringly off-beam overhead from Stephens. 3-1. Can’t give Sevastova enough credit here, she’s faced both injury and in-form opponent down and now looks very much like winning.
But that’s a huge break from Sevastova two games later. She leads 2-1 in the final set, taking that one by giving Stephens an absolute bashing from beyond the baseline. Her change in tack may have been forced but it’s produced some exceptional tennis from her.
Third set underway, and Stephens settles the nerves with another tough hold. It’s going to come down to psychology, this.
Sevastova wins the second set 6-3! Another hold apiece and that’s enough for the Latvian, who forces an error to leave us with an intriguing decider!
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Plenty of big hitting now, perhaps for differing reasons, and Sevastova comes out on top again. She just needs to take one more game to level things up. Elsewhere, by the way, the Bryans beat the French pair 6-3, 7-5 and make the men’s doubles semis!
Sevastova is still struggling and quite clearly trying to keep the points short – plenty of drop shots and big hits. But Stephens’ game has fallen apart rather in this set so far, much like Dominic Thiem’s yesterday. Another Sevastova drop shot brings up advantage and another break point; it’s saved, and then another chance comes and goes, before Stephens completes a long and complicated hold. 4-2 Sevastova.
And she’s clearly quite fired up, doing a bit of a Del Potro here. Sevastova holds well to lead 4-1.
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Sevastova gets a heck of a workout in the third point of the fourth game, which Stephens wins but after a hugely entertaining chase-down to the net. She then earns a break point after a delicious drop shot. Could she make the first break of the second set? Yes! Stephens fires a backhand wide. Sevastova leads 3-1 in the second set.
First blood to Sevastova in the opening set, forcing Stephens back and taking a little more initiative than she had been. She leads 1-0.
Stephens takes the first set 6-3. And Sevastova’s run might be coming to an end. The American got stronger and stronger as that set went on; her opponent appears to be feeling the pace now.
Sevastova, if you’d forgotten, can of course rival Stephens in the injury nightmare stakes – she retired in 2013, before reversing that decision in January 2015. She’s done exceptionally well to be here.
That little break did its job in the short term, certainly. Sevastova’s serve was under severe pressure at 2-5, and it went to deuce again, but she is still in the hunt at 5-3 to Stephens, who now serves for the first set.
The Bryans are, of course, a set up in the meantime.
It’s a time out, this, for Sevastova, so excuse the lengthy break. Hopefully a bit of the magic sponge will do the business here. It’s a leg injury, that much I know.
Another break point comes and goes on Stephens’ serve, so yet another game reaches deuce. When Stephens hits a lovely cross-court winner for advantage you sense the crowd are really getting behind her now. They’re happy again when Sevastova nets and Stephens leads 5-2. Sevastova is having some physio treatment at the changearound.
Stephens has another break point in the sixth game but Sevastova applies some good pressure to save. A lovely, swept forehand then gives Sevastova the advantage and she makes sure of the game. 4-2 to Stephens.
Now Stephens saves a break point with a firmly-converted overhead. It’s entertaining fare, this, with all the games tightly fought. She closes it out and extends her lead to 4-1.
Stephens, whose power is now starting to make a big impression, earns two break points after holding ... and then, in deuce, converts a third! She is in control and 3-1 up!
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The Bryan brothers are on court in the men’s doubles quarters by the way; they just keep on keeping on, to a remarkably high level, and they are 5-2 up over Julien Benneteau and Edouard Roger-Vasselin.
Stephens breaks back though, forcing a wild forehand from Sevastova at advantage. Could we be in for the epic we’ve been craving? 1-1.
And Sevastova breaks in the first. Still not too many people in the stadium – hope a bit more of a rousing atmosphere develops as this goes on for Stephens, who is world No83 but has had utterly rotten luck with injuries and was an Australian Open semi-finalist just four years ago. Her comeback is, in itself, some tale.
Stephens and Sevastova are underway, with the former serving first ...
“I hope we play some good rallies, play some amazing points and the crowd enjoy it,” says Sevastova. That’s the spirit!
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Up soon – Stephens and Sevastova, which should be a better match than that last one, in theory at least. Stay with us, they’re knocking up ...
Another men’s doubles quarter-final has been Feliciano Lopez and Marc Lopez beat Matwe Middelkoop and Robin Haase 6-4, 7-5.
Carreno Busta: “It’s something I always dreamed of. It’s very exciting to be in the semi finals of this tournament, thank you to all the people for their support. I had to be focused all the time, Diego is a fighter. It could be fantastic to play against [Nadal] in the final.”
Pablo Carreno Busta reaches the US Open semi finals
He earns three match points and closes it out to win 6-4, 6-4, 6-2 – his first grand slam semi-final berth! He was a class above here; this took him under two hours and he deserves it richly.
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Not long before we see a similarly emphatic outcome here – Correno Busta breaks a, errr, broken-looking Schwartzman, who has just failed to make so many chances and reprieves stick. He will now serve for the match. 5-2 in the third.
Jamie Murray and Bruno Soares exit the US Open
That wasn’t on the cards. The defending champions have been thumped 6-1, 6-2 by Rojer and Tecau, the Dutch/Romanian pair, in the men’s doubles quarter-finals. Murray has the mixed, with Martina Hingis, still to come but this is a blow.
Schwartzman contrives a quite extraordinary backhand lob-volley to bring up deuce at 3-2 down on Carreno Busta’s serve. Stuff of that standard has been exceedingly rare during this one! He plays a terribly loose shot straight afterwards, which is more like par, but goes on to save three game points in deuce. No joy on the fourth. 4-2 to Carreno Busta in the third.
Murray and Soares are on the brink of an unexpected and highly unwelcome defeat – they’re a set down, of course, and now a break down in the second ...
Schwartzman can’t say he has not been without chances here despite the margin of his current deficit, and earns three more break points to level the third back up. He fluffs them all! That was surely his big opportunity to claw a way back into the game, but he just hasn’t found the mental strength to tough these out – he has been outrallied on a few of these long break points and that says something. 3-1 to Carreno Busta.
Not the biggest turnout inside Arthur Ashe for this one, it must be said – presumably all keeping their powder dry for home hopes Stephens and, later, Venus Williams. In the meantime Murray and Soares, so emphatically a set down, are on 2-2 on serve in the second against Rojer and Tecau.
A one-sided start to the second set sees Carreno Busta break, and then hold to 15. He leads 6-4, 6-4, 2-0 and while things looked like tightening up for a while there seems little hope for Schwartzman now.
Murray and Soares duly lost their first set 6-1 – ouch ...
Carreno Busta takes the second set 6-4, and goes two sets up! It’s not straightforward, as he wastes one break point, but the second is taken with an unreturnable serve. Despite a much better second set to watch, he’s looking set fair for the semis ... unless Schwartzman can emulate Del Potro ...
How Schwartzman might regret such a big missed chance, as he’s now broken for 5-4 ...
Murray and Soares, the holders of the men’s doubles, are now 5-0 down in the first. This was definitely not the plan ...
Ohhhh, Schwartzman wastes three break points at 4-3 and the second, certainly, was an avoidable miss with a lot of the court to aim at. A lot more of an edge to this one now. We are square again at 4-4. Both players are starting to find the lines and give us a contest.
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Murray and Soares, the fourth seeds, have gone an early break down against their 12th-seeded opponents ...
The best game of the match so far sees Schwartzman save two break points, and both players are mixing it up now with drop shots and a couple of great winners. The Argentinian yells with glee as, eventually, he goes 3-2 up on serve.
Schwartzman earns two break points now, though, and misses the first. What about the second? He slams a forehand winner to take it, and we’re all square in the second set! That’s not the first time Carreno Busta has wavered under pressure. This one ain’t done. It’s 2-2.
Another potentially break for Carreno Busta, now. He leads 2-1 in the second, and of course a set up. I’m banging on about it but this match is just a little featureless.
Murray and Soares are out on court for their quarter-final against Rojer and Tecau. They’re warming up ... and I’ll keep you up to date as the match itself warms up. Back on Arthur Ashe, Carreno Busta and Schwartzman exchange pretty bland holds to begin the second get.
Carreno Busta takes the first set 6-4. No nerves this time, if we discount the fact he needed two set points to achieve it. He’s been the better player in this set and the surprise, really, is that it’s taken him so long to close it out. Schwartzman needs to step things up.
That women’s doubles quarter-final is over, by the way – a straight-sets win for Siniakova and Hradecka, 7-6, 6-3.
The pair now exchange breaks, Schwartzman claiming his after Carreno Busta, serving for the set, double faults. Carreno Busta leads 5-3. There’s just no real flow to this match.
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Carreno Busta wobbles on serve but holds after deuce to lead 4-2. It’s watchable without being great; neither man really has a big weapon so there’s a touch of intensity lacking.
Schwartzman holds serve despite being robbed of a point by what seemed that rarest of things – an error by the hawk eye system.
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We’re seeing some nice, lengthy rallies so far but little in the way of eyecatching blows. Schwartzman gets himself back into it by holding serve but Carreno Busta subsequently holds again despite a minor scare at 15-30. He leads 3-1 in the first set.
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Schwartzman isn’t moving well and is already 2-0 down in the first set. It’s already looking as if this could be over pretty quickly – but can you think of another match in the last 24 hours when we’ve said that ... ?
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Kontinen and Peers have done the job – they win 6-3, 6-4.
We’re underway with Schwartzman serving. As yesterday, we have that half-half shadow on the court that makes the ball very awkward indeed to keep track of as it travels from one end to the other. Schwartzman is certainly slow to get to grips – he’s broken to love in the first game!
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Schwartzman’s best US Open performance before this was a second-round showing; it’s fair to say this isn’t the most obvious quarter-final you’ll ever see but both players have played pretty smoothly so far. Hard to see either troubling Federer or Nadal, should the chance arrive two matches down the line, but that’s not a concern just yet ...
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Carreno Busta and Schwartzman are out on court! We should have some Actual Tennis for you before too long, and not before time.
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Hradecka and Siniakova are a set up in their women’s doubles quarter-final; Kontinen and Peers are now a set and a break up in the men’s, so the top seeds there look well set to progress ...
Jamie Murray is, in fact, up twice later on today. He and Martina Hingis, top seeds in the mixed doubles, take on Abigail Spears and Juan Sebastian Cabal in the last eight; also, and probably before that, he and Soares play a men’s doubles quarter-final against Jean-Julien Rojer and Horia Tecau.
Don't Count Pablo Out: @pablocarreno91 🇪🇸 is into his 2nd straight major QF. He faces Schwartzman 1st up on Ashe: https://t.co/vFvvRFfYcg pic.twitter.com/d33Xl287qk
— US Open Tennis (@usopen) September 5, 2017
Carreno Busta is a man in form ...
Kontinen and Peers won that first set 6-3. I’d love to tell you more about it, but there’s no feed of the doubles here. What I *do* know is that if things go to plan they will play Jamie Murray and Bruno Soares in the semis, which would be quite a match!
Let’s not forget last night’s victory by Madison Keys over Elina Svitolina, either – that was a superb result in three sets and the US has a really strong presence in its own tournament going into the final stages. Will Stephens add to that? Any predictions for today? Drop me a line!
For the avoidance of doubt, the winner of Carreno Busta v Schwartzmann will play the winner of that later Querrey v Anderson match in the semis. Theirs is what one might kindly call the less attractive half of the draw, but it’s all the more unpredictable for that ...
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Henri Kontinen and John Peers, top seeds in the men’s event, are already a break up and whirring along nicely ...
The only action I can currently bring you, this apart, is Eurosport’s re-run of Federer v Kohlschreiber – so please bear with me. Should have something current on our hands soon.
A couple of doubles quarters are underway already – Kontinen/Peers v Monroe/Smith in the men’s, and Klepac/Martinez Sanchez v Hradecka/Siniakova in the women’s. Not much to report yet though.
Hello!
Got your breath back from that marvellous Del Potro-Thiem match yet? Staggering stuff and it really made a day that, otherwise, was as routine as they come. Assuming you’ve come to your senses – and I barely have – here’s what we have on the table today. Just the two singles matches during this blog’s lifespan:
Men’s singles quarter-finals – Pablo Carreno Busta (12) v Diego Schwartzmann (29) – Carreno Busta beat precocious teen Denis Shapovalov last time out, after three tie breaks, and is yet to drop a set here. This is already his best US Open result. Schwartzmann, the Argentinian, has dropped a couple but claimed a notable third round scalp in the shape of Marin Cilic. It could be fun, this.
Women’s singles quarter-finals – Sloane Stephens v Anastasija Sevastova (16) – Could the unseeded Stephens, who has already beaten two seeds, continue this superb run into uncharted territory? The Florida native will be well supported out on Arthur Ashe, although Sevastova, who beat Maria Sharapova in three sets last time out, is in ominously good form herself.
Those two matches take place one after the other; Venus Williams faces Petra Kvitova much later on, and we’ll have a separate game-by-game for that, while Sam Querrey will face Kevin Anderson. There is also some doubles to take in. Meantime, do send in your tweets and emails, and let’s enjoy!
Nick will be here shortly.
