Images from Day 9 of the US Open, played at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in New York City, New York on Tuesday.
Dimitrov upsets Federer to reach semis
Grigor Dimitrov stepped out of Roger Federer's shadow on Tuesday to claim a spot in the US Open semi-finals with a shock 3-6, 6-4, 3-6, 6-4, 6-2 win over the wounded Swiss.
Coming into the US Open, the 78th ranked Dimitrov, dubbed "Baby Fed" because of the similarities between his game and Federer's, did not look much of a threat, posting just one win from his last eight matches.
But the Bulgarian, who had been ranked as high as number three, has found some form on the New York hardcourts and claimed his first win in eight meetings with the 20-times Grand Slam winner.
Federer looked razor sharp to start the match but was not able to maintain his usual high level against the gritty Bulgarian.
The turning point came in the fourth set, Dimitrov fighting off five break points to win the set and level match at 2-2.
Before the start of the fifth set Federer called for the trainer, who, after a brief conversation with the 38-year-old, escorted him off the court for a medical time out to deal with an apparent back problem.
When play resumed Dimitrov seized his chance, breaking Federer to open the fifth and then a second time with the Swiss unable to mount any defence as the Bulgarian went on to claim the biggest win of his career.
Serena claims 100th US Open win to fly into semis
Serena Williams claimed her 100th win at the US Open in style on Tuesday, dismantling her quarter-final opponent Wang Qiang 6-1, 6-0 in a blistering 44-minute performance that ended any questions over a twisted ankle from the previous round.
“I never thought that I would get to 100,” Williams said after the match, reflecting on the two decades she’s spent playing at Flushing Meadows.
“It’s so special. I never want to let it go.”
The 37-year-old American was dominant from the start, firing off 25 winners, compared to zero from 18th-seed Wang, and winning 90% of her first serve points.
During her fourth-round match on Sunday, Williams slipped and fell while running to the net and twisted her right ankle but said on Tuesday she was feeling “great”.
Williams faces fifth-seed Elina Svitolina in the semi-finals.
Bad boy Medvedev too good for Wawrinka
Daniil Medvedev may not win any popularity contests at Flushing Meadows but remained on course for a US Open title on Tuesday, taming Stan Wawrinka 7-6(6), 6-3, 3-6, 6-1 to reach his first grand slam semi-final.
The villain and hero roles for this match could not have been more clearly defined if the Russian bad boy and the even-keeled Swiss were wearing black and white cowboy hats.
Wawrinka may not be as popular as his countryman Roger Federer, but “Stan the Man” has earned considerable respect, along with three Grand Slam titles including the 2016 US Open, for a workmanlike approach to his craft.
Medvedev has not just accepted the villain role but embraced it, harnessing the negative energy and using it to fuel a run to the quarter-finals.
The Russian fifth seed was greeted by a chorus of boos when he stepped out onto Arthur Ashe, but it was far from an intimidating welcome with the massive stadium sparsely filled for the early session.
There is seldom a need to urge any New York sporting crowd to express their opinion yet while Medvedev did not win many friends, neither was he lustily showered with jeers as he had been in earlier matches.
In his third-round win over Feliciano Lopez, the 23-year-old Russian angrily snatched a towel from a ball person, threw his racket and showed the crowd his middle finger, which led to fines totalling $9,000 and a shower of boos.
The match ended with Medvedev, arms raised amid a chorus of jeers, sarcastically thanking the spectators at Louis Armstrong Stadium then telling the New York crowd to bring it on.
The crowd let him have it again after his fourth-round win over Dominik Koepfer on Sunday when he performed a dance after match point.
There were none of those antics or sparring with the crowd on Tuesday as a focused Medvedev put his head down and got on with the job.
Despite nine double faults, two foot faults and an injury time out to have work done on his left thigh, Medvedev somehow managed to snatch the opening set with an 8-6 tiebreak.
Having reached three consecutive ATP Tour finals coming into Flushing Meadows, including a win in Cincinnati, Medvedev looked much more like the hottest player in tennis in a dominant second set.
The lanky Russia got his serve under control, avoiding any double faults, and secured the early break before opening a two-set lead against an increasingly frustrated Wawrinka.
Yet the barrel-chested Swiss is nothing if not a battler and broke Medvedev at the first opportunity in the third before holding on to cut the deficit to 2-1.
Medvedev, however, grabbed the early break in the fourth and a second to go 5-1 up before closing out the match with a cheeky lob.
Svitolina downs Konta to reach semis
Elina Svitolina continued her dominant run against Johanna Konta with a 6-4, 6-4 win on Tuesday to reach the US Open semi-finals for the first time.
The fifth-seeded Ukrainian, who has won all of her meetings with the Briton, reached her second straight Grand Slam semi-final after also making the last four at Wimbledon in July.
Svitolina’s sturdy baseline attack wore down the 16th-seeded Konta, who made 35 unforced errors, 22 more than her opponent, on a sun-soaked day at Arthur Ashe Stadium.
"It feels amazing," she said of being the first player to reach the semis at the tournament this year.
"It was a very, very tough match ... I think we were both striking the ball. It was quite even," she said.
"I'm very happy with how I handled the pressure."
Svitolina rifled a backhand winner on break point for a 4-3 lead in the second set, celebrating with an emphatic fist pump in front of the crowd that included her boyfriend Gael Monfils, who plays his quarter-final on Wednesday.
Konta continued to fight, however, saving two match points on her serve, but Svitolina ended the contest in the next game when the Briton fired long.
Svitolina said that Frenchman Monfils has been a big help to her during the tournament.
"Definitely we are pushing each other I think because we are trying to join each other in the quarter-final and now the semi final ... so now he has to step up his game," she said with a laugh.
Next up for Svitolina is a meeting with either eighth seed Serena Williams or 18th seed Wang Qiang, who play their quarter-final match later on Tuesday.
