For the second straight major tournament, Alexander Zverev is through to the semifinals – this time after stopping Borna Coric on Tuesday at the US Open.
Zverev’s win came after American Jennifer Brady progressed to her first ever Grand Slam semifinal where she will next face Naomi Osaka, who impressed in her straight-sets dismissal of Shelby Rogers.
Zverev will play No.20 seed Pablo Carreno Busta - who overcame 12th seed Denis Shapovalov in five sapping sets - for a place in his first Grand Slam final.
Osaka, Carreno Busta return to US Open semis
Osaka, who won her first major title at Flushing Meadows in 2018, Improved her tournament record to a sparkling 19-3 thanks to a 6-3 6-4 win over Rogers.
The Japanese star played incredibly aggressive, clean tennis, belting 24 winners to just eight unforced errors and returning second serves further inside the baseline than in previous rounds.
Rogers, who matched Osaka in power off the ground yet finished with 27 unforced errors, had won all three of their previous meetings; their most recent in 2017 prompted Osaka to admit, with a laugh, that it had left “sort of a really bad aftertaste in my mouth.”
Osaka, riding a nine-match winning streak, won her most recent match against Brady, although it was more than two years ago and came on clay in Charleston.
In the match that stretched into the early hours of Wednesday morning, Carreno Busta outlasted an erratic Shapovalov to reach his second US Open semifinal, having progressed to the same stage in 2017.
The Spaniard required treatment for a lower back issue after being bagelled in the fourth set, before scoring a 3-6 7-6(5) 7-6(4) 0-6 6-3 win over Shapovalov, whose 76 winners were countered by 76 unforced errors.
Zverev making moves at the majors
Prior to 2020, Zverev had never been beyond a Grand Slam quarterfinal.
But after advancing to the last four at Melbourne Park in January, he repeated the feat at Flushing Meadows thanks to a 1-6 7-6(5) 7-6(1) 6-3 win over Coric, the No.27 seed.
Coric led the pair’s head-to-head series 3-1 – including a win over Zverev at this tournament three years ago – and moved ahead 6-1 4-2 before the world No.7 eventually began to wrest control.
After hitting just five winners in the first set, a more-aggressive Zverev averaged nearly 16 winners in each of the next three sets to complete victory in just under three-and-a-half hours.
Zverev beat Carreno Busta in their only previous meeting in the semifinals of the Miami Open in 2018.
Brady continues stellar form
The 25-year-old American’s 6-3 6-2 win over Putintseva continued her breakout Grand Slam event; Brady’s previous best Slam results came in 2017, when she reached the fourth round at both the Australian and US Opens.
Brady, who overwhelmed former world No.1 Angelique Kerber in the previous round, needed just 69 minutes to see off Putintseva, who is now 0-3 in major quarterfinals.
Brady smacked 22 winners to seven – including six aces among that tally – and is yet to drop a set in New York, where she will next face Osaka.
In her first Grand Slam quarter-final, Jennifer Brady beats Yulia Putintseva to reach her first Grand Slam semi-final.
— The Tennis Podcast (@TennisPodcast) September 8, 2020
And she’s not even come CLOSE to dropping a set:
6-3, 6-2, 6-1, 6-2, 6-3, 6-3, 6-1, 6-4, 6-3, 6-2. #USOpen
The recent WTA Lexington champion has won 10 of her 11 matches since professional tennis resumed in August, but was already in fine form prior to the sport’s coronavirus-related suspension.
In January she upset world No.1 Ash Barty en route to the Brisbane International quarterfinals, before progressing to the semifinals in Dubai in February.
Tweet of the day
Sliding into the semis?? #USOpen2020 #NewYork pic.twitter.com/PMDdAgdidA
— Alexander Zverev (@AlexZverev) September 8, 2020
Quotes of the day
"I'm destroyed, but I'm very, very happy. It's incredible to be back in the semifinals again."
- Pablo Carreno Busta
"Honestly, the entire 2019, after I won Australia, I just put too much pressure on myself, I wasn't enjoying it. When I played against Coco (Gauff) in Australia this year, I was just so stressed out. So then I just thought to myself, I'm gonna take the quarantine to mentally evaluate what I want to do when I come back. When you walk out onto Ashe, there's a quote from Billie Jean King – it says 'pressure is a privilege'. And for me, I feel like it's very true. Like, unbelievably.”
- Naomi Osaka
“Coming into the match today, honestly I was feeling like I was going to poop my pants, but I was very nervous. I just tried to really stay calm and, like, keep it cool as a cucumber out there.”
- Jennifer Brady, who was playing in her first major quarterfinal.
"If I would have played the way I played it's not the level for a quarterfinal match at a Grand Slam. I had to start playing better. I thought to myself: I'm down 6-1 4-2, I have nothing to lose there, at that moment."
- Alexander Zverev
Stat of the day
Zverev becomes the first German man in 25 years to reach a US Open semifinal – the last was Boris Becker in 1995.
Day 10: ones to watch
Mothers will be out in force on Wednesday at Flushing Meadows, when Serena Williams and Tsvetana Pironkova clash in the first match of the day before Victoria Azarenka opens the night session, against No.16 seed Elise Mertens.
For the first time in Grand Slam history, three moms are into the quarterfinal.
— US Open Tennis (@usopen) September 8, 2020
1. Serena Williams
2. Victoria Azarenka
3. Tsvetana Pironkova
In between those matches at Ashe will be the all-Russian affair pitting last year’s finalist Daniil Medvedev against 10th see Andrey Rublev, who is appearing in his second US Open quarterfinal.
Second seed Dominic Thiem features in the final night match when he takes on 21-year-old Alex de Minaur; the Austrian and the Australian are both playing for a place in their first semifinal in New York.