Belinda Bencic recovers to claim Misaki Doi victory

“It’s tiring”, he said. “I think it worked”.

Who were you rooting for in the match: Venus or Belinda? He was the first reigning U.S. Open men’s champ since 2001 to not begin his title defense at Arthur Ashe Stadium, playing at Louis Armstrong instead. So was her opponent.

She was asked whether it feels “new and exciting” to be headed toward the second week of the tournament again. But while many doubted her on this night, she didn’t.

“Just tried to play some good service games, get a hold, and you never know”.

“I feel like the people recognize me a little bit more”, Bencic said. “You might as well destroy it”.

So it’s understandable that Williams acknowledged feeling “tight” and “nervous” in her second-round victory Wednesday, when she immediately headed out to the practice courts for extra work with coach Patrick Mouratoglou. But she isn’t Serena a Williams, so … she gave it right back, went to a tiebreaker … and lost the set.

Williams also can become the first woman since Chris Evert in 1975-78 to win four U.S. Opens in a row.

“I thought that she was very determined and focused”, Venus Williams said.

Joining the seven-times grand slam singles victor in the fourth round was Russian 13th seed Ekaterina Makarova, a semi-finalst at Flushing Meadows past year.

A back injury forced 16th-seeded Gael Monfils to stop playing his first-round match against Illya Marchenko while trailing 2-6, 6-4, 5-0, 30-0. Kontaveit, 19, is No. 152 in the world rankings. It was looking ominous for the veteran, because her three-set record hadn’t been that great on the back end of her career and specifically at the U.S. Open. It was an especially impressive performance considering the 45th-ranked Vandeweghe was coming off a breakthrough run to the Wimbledon quarterfinals and upset 29th-seeded Sloane Stephens in the first round.

Diatchenko was visited by a trainer during the first set and got her left foot and ankle taped. Finally, Vandeweghe raised her arms to the crowd and slammed it once more.

To her credit, the No. 12 Bencic prevailed, winning 5-7, 7-6 (3), 6-3, and afterward expressed remorse.

Cilic has won all six sets he’s played this week. A couple of times in that game, Bencic had a few close calls go against her and since the court this match was played on (Court 11) had no challenge system available, the 18-year-old was annoyed, and so was the crowd as they booed the umpire. “And then in the fifth set, he was not feeling well”. “I think with Serena in Toronto I did better”.

Fish returned to the tour this summer after struggling with anxiety disorder and announced the U.S. Open would be the final tournament of his career. He had won his only previous matchup with Nadal, which came a year ago. We can only hope that she will share what exactly she is thinking about for her upcoming match with Venus, and whether she has been made aware yet of it at all yet? Bouchard remarked. “That’s very sad. Today I just wanted to be aggressive, which is my style of game,” Williams added.

Bencic was crying in frustration at times in a second-round win Wednesday over Japan s Misaki Doi in which she saved three match points. “I can’t let that affect me because I still have other tournaments to play”.

Daria Kasatkina is a lucky victor. At 18, Bencic was the youngest to make it to the third round.

She defeated her fellow American Samantha Crawford in straight sets 6-4, 6-2 in the first round of the Open and will look to continue that success later this week.

Djokovic dropped only three games in beating 91st-ranked Joao Souza of Brazil 6-1, 6-1, 6-1 on Monday. For the tennis elder who schooled her Friday, a quarterfinal date with her sister is one round away.

“Sometimes like, ‘Oh, she’s the girl who beat Serena”.