By Karl Plume
NEW YORK (Reuters) – The stars and stripes prevailed at the U.S. Open on Tuesday as Americans Taylor Fritz and Emma Navarro advanced to their first ever Grand Slam semi-finals under sunny skies on the Arthur Ashe Stadium.
Fritz, the 12th seed, denied world number four Alexander Zverev another shot at a first major with a 7-6(2) 3-6 6-4 7-6(3) triumph just two months after dispatching the big German in the fourth round at Wimbledon.
“I’ve had a lot of looks at quarter-finals over the past couple of years and today just felt different. I really felt like it was my time to take it a step further,” Fritz said.
“It’s only fitting I’m doing it here on this court at the Open in front of this crowd,” he said over the roaring home fans.
Fritz claimed a tight first set in a tiebreak after the two towering players wowed fans with a mixture of powerful baseline blasts and drop shots and winners at the net.
Zverev bounced back to level the match in the second, energised by one of the shots of the tournament, a curling return from out wide that sailed over the net post and landed on both lines.
But the world number 12 seized back momentum in the third set and closed out the match in a fourth-set tiebreak.
In the day session’s opening match, 13th seed Navarro continued her meteoric rise to the top tier of tennis with a 6-2 7-5 win over Spain’s Paula Badosa in a battle of New York-born baseliners.
One of two American women remaining in the tournament, Navarro snatched an early break to go 3-0 up in the first set, then turned aside two break points to take it in convincing fashion.
Navarro, who beat defending champion Coco Gauff in the previous round, stunned a suddenly error-prone Badosa by winning 24 of the last 28 points of the match to wrap up victory in 72 minutes.
“I think things weren’t looking great there in the second set, but just tried to be really tough, stick in there,” Navarro said.
“I felt like if I could scrap out a few longer points, maybe put some pressure on her, you know, I felt like I could come back and maybe close it out in two sets. Happy with how I was able to do that.”
The night session features seventh seed Zheng Qinwen taking on number two seed Aryna Sabalenka, who has won their only two previous meetings.
In the late match, 20th seed Frances Tiafoe will attempt to reach the U.S. Open semi-final for the second time in three years and tee up an all-American clash in the tournament’s penultimate round for the first time since 2005.
In his path is Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov, the veteran ninth seed, who has a 3-1 record against Tiafoe.
(Reporting by Karl Plume in New York; Editing by Toby Davis)
Comments