21-year-old Serbian qualifier stunned the Wimbledon champion
Aleksandra Krunic, of Serbia, left, greets Petra Kvitova, of the Czech Republic, after winning their third round match of the 2014 U.S. Open tennis tournament
New York: Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray stayed on course for a mouth-watering US Open quarterfinal showdown on Saturday as five-time women’s champion Serena Williams stood alone as America’s last singles title hope.
But as the heavyweights of the sport eased into the fourth round, the women’s draw was blown open again when Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova became the fifth top 10 seed to exit in the first week.
Kvitova’s misery was shared by American tennis after John Isner and Sam Querrey were both knocked out in the third round leaving the hosts still without a men’s Grand Slam champion since Andy Roddick triumphed in New York in 2003.
Djokovic, the 2011 champion, brushed aside Querrey for the eighth time in nine meetings, with a 6-3, 6-2, 6-2 win taking the world number one into the fourth round at a major for the 22nd consecutive time.
Wimbledon champion and seven-time major winner Djokovic will next face Germany’s Philipp Kohlschreiber who ended US hopes with a 7-6 (7/4), 4-6, 7-6 (7/2), 7-6 (7/4) win over Isner despite the American 13th seed firing 42 aces and 77 winners.
It was the third successive year that Kohlschreiber had defeated Isner in the third round.Williams racked up her 75th victory at the US Open when she eased past her third successive American compatriot, Uzbekistan-born left-hander Varvara Lepchenko, 6-3, 6-3 and will tackle tough Estonian Kaia Kanepi for a quarter-final berth.
Murray, the 2012 champion, hit 47 winners in a 6-1, 7-5, 4-6, 6-2 victory over Russia’s Andrey Kuznetsov, the world 96, to book a seventh appearance in the fourth round and goes on to face French ninth seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga who beat Pablo Carreno-Busta of Spain, 6-4, 6-4, 6-4.
Third seeded Stan Wawrinka, the Australian Open champion, reached the fourth round without hitting a ball when Slovenian opponent Blaz Kavcic withdrew with a right foot injury.
That took the number of retirements and walkovers at this year’s US Open to 10 in the men’s event and two in the women’s.
Wawrinka next faces 16th-seeded Spaniard Tommy Robredo, a 3-6, 6-3, 7-6 (7/4), 6-3 winner over Australian Nick Kyrgios, who had shocked Rafael Nadal in the fourth round at Wimbledon.
Women’s third seeded Kvitova lost her third round tie 6-4, 6-4 to pint-sized Serbian, 21-year-old Aleksandra Krunic, who came through qualifying.
Kvitova joins second seed Simona Halep, fourth-seeded Agnieszka Radwanska, Angelique Kerber, the sixth seed, and eighth-seeded Ana Ivanovic in failing to make the fourth round.
The 24-year-old Kvitova dropped serve five times and committed 34 unforced errors against the 5ft 4in (1.63m) Krunic who divides her time between the pro tour and studying for a university economics degree.
Also going through to the last-16 of the men’s singles for a third successive year was Canadian fifth seed Milos Raonic who beat Victor Estrella Burgos, the 34-year-old tournament debutant from the Dominican Republic, 7-6 (7/5), 7-6 (7/5), 7-6 (7/3).
( Source : AFP )
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