Del Potro into U.S. Open quarters after Thiem retires

Del Potro knows all about that.

The victory by the hard-hitting Swiss set up a clash with big-serving del Potro, who won 6-3 3-2 when eighth seed Dominic Thiem of Austria retired with a knee injury. Spurred on by Argentinian fans who made the short trip to Brazil, del Potro ousted Nadal in the semifinals and nearly took the most in-form player in tennis, Andy Murray, to a fifth set in the final.

He said: “I never expected to play that many matches, of course, this year”, he said. “I wish all the best to Dominic”. “It’s not only because I’ve been winning matches or anything like that”.

Del Potro, the 2009 U.S. Open victor, whose career has been interrupted by a series of wrist operations and needed a wild card to get into the year’s last grand slam, has made the most of his opportunity by reaching the last eight without dropping a set. It was not a great surprise when he became the ninth player to retire during a match in the final grand slam of the season, which invariably has a high casualty rate. “But we have a good connection, between the New York City people, between the Argentinian fans, the American fans, and I’m really enjoying playing in this stadium”.

“I really don’t know what’s going on”, he said.

Del Potro recalled in his on-court interview after Monday’s match how sad he was to watch the U.S. Open on TV, stuck at home the last two years. They are proud to see me playing tennis again.

Del Potro missed 2½ years’ worth of major tournaments because of a trio of operations on his left wrist, so he’s ranked only 142nd.

Starting the match with clarity, Thiem’s judgment grew cloudy as he spit up a cluster of errors.

Then Pliskova broke to lead 6-5 and served for the match, getting three chances to close it at 40-love.

But because of his wrist issues, he has been off the tour for long stretches during the last six years. He reeled off five straight games, including eight of the last nine points.

Buoyed by the support of family and friends, del Potro persevered and now he’s aiming to win his second US Open title since 2009, when he beat Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer back-to-back en route to the Open crown. By then, he’d won seven of the last eight games. Thiem said about his injury.

Del Potro is not only one of the most powerful players on the circuit, he’s also one of the smartest. He returned for one point before deciding he should not continue.

Thiem took a medical timeout to have trainers look at his right knee after the second set’s fifth game.

Two-time major champion Stan Wawrinka blew a lead, smashed a racket and eventually pulled out a four-set victory to reach his fourth straight U.S. Open quarterfinal.

Wawrinka had things harder for a second successive match, dropping a set to unseeded Illya Marchenko two days after being taken the distance by Britain’s Dan Evans. I really appreciate the wild card who give me to have the chance to play, and that’s important for me.

“I’ll need to play better than today if I want to win that”, Murray said after that four-set victory about his upcoming meeting with Dimitrov.