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Alcaraz is backstage, headphones on. But he doesn’t have his game face on yet; instead he’s fiddling on his phone. He’ll make his entrance on Ashe, along with Arthur Rinderknech, in just over 20 minutes’ time.
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It was announced today that Daniil Medvedev has split with his coach Gilles Cervara after his first-round exit in New York. They’d been together for about eight years – including for the Russian’s 2021 US Open triumph and getting to No 1 in the world – so it’s sad to see the partnership end, but something probably had to change after Medvedev’s sudden slump this year. He also went out of Wimbledon and the French Open in the opening round, and only made the second round at the Australian Open, his worst year at majors since his debut slam season in 2017.
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Mannarino and Lehecka have traded a break in the second set, with Mannarino 4-3 up, having made Lehecka look like the 37-year-old rather than the 23-year-old a few games ago:
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Alcaraz’s match is a “not before 1.30pm”, so he won’t be out for another 40 minutes.
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A really nice interview between Pegula and Pam Shriver on court. “I played [Li] at Roland Garros this year and had a tough two sets,” Pegula says. “I feel she came out a bit slow and nervous here and I wanted to jump on that and not let her settle.”
Pegula, the daughter of the Buffalo Bills owner Terry Pegula, is then asked about the new NFL season. “I think it’s so cool I’ve been able to bring football fans into the tennis world,” she says. “Everyone roots for me. Every city I go to [in the world], I always run into Bills fans.”
Finally, she thanks Lindsay Davenport, the US Billie Jean King Cup captain, for watching today. “Lindsay is awesome. It’s been so fun working with her and playing for her. I know she’s watching here as much as she can, it’s been awesome. I need to post a picture of her signing a giant tennis ball for me years ago, but she said it made her feel really old.” She’s smiling, Lindsay is smiling, as well they should after such a performance.
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Updated at 17.59 BST
Pegula beats Li 6-1, 6-2
Perfect touch from Pegula at the net and it’s 0-30. Li lamps it long and it’s 0-40. And Pegula, somewhat predictably given the way this has gone, needs only one match point. Last year’s runner-up is the first player into the last eight and she’s barely been troubled in her first four matches. Up next it could be another all-American affair with Taylor Townsend, or Barbora Krejcikova. It’s a shame this ended so quickly, but hey, at least the good news is it means we’ve got Carlitos next.
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Updated at 17.42 BST
These two did also meet at the French Open this year, by the way, in the second round, where Pegula came through in two much tighter sets. This match is all but over, though, as Pegula holds to 30 for 6-1, 5-2. She’s a game away from a fourth consecutive US Open quarter-final.
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With Pegula pushing and probing once again on Li’s serve at 15-30, time is starting to run out for the less well known of the two Americans. 15-30 turns into 30-40. We’ve seen this before. But then Li tears up the script, sending down a rare stinging second serve to save the break point, before holding from deuce. Pegula leads 6-1, 4-2.
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Pegula is still bossing it on Ashe, leading 6-1, 3-1. And a glance through today’s early results brings up the name “Hewitt”. It’s not the 2001 champion Lleyton, however, but his 16-year-old son Cruz, who’s suffered a 6-3, 6-0 defeat in the first round of the boys’ singles to the American fourth seed Benjamin Willwerth. Lleyton was in the stands watching.
Cruz Hewitt. Photograph: Clive Brunskill/Getty ImagesShare
Mannarino, who benefitted from Ben Shelton’s unfortunate retirement in the previous round, has taken Lehecka to a tie-break. Mannarino is in the early ascendancy, moving to 4-1, before Lehecka comes back for 4-4 with some gusty net play. Make that 5-4 Lehecka and then 6-4 when Mannarino misses an absolute gimme of a backhand! Lehecka takes his sixth point on the spin and that’s the set.
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Updated at 17.29 BST
Li does get her side of the scoreboard going, breaking to reduce her deficit to 3-1, but Pegula locks straight back in to restore her double break before holding to 15. Only 23 minutes in, it’s very hard to see how Li can find a way back. Her second serve is batting practice for Pegula, who’s won all 10 of those points, make that 11. And in no time at all it’s 15-40, two set points. Pegula nets on the first and Li messes up her slice on the set. Pegula rattles through the first set 6-1.
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Lehecka, meanwhile, has got a second set point in the opener against Mannarino, leading 5-4 and at advantage on Mannarino’s serve. Mannarino shows unrelenting resolve to save it. This match represents a big opportunity for these two, despite being at very different stages of their careers. The 37-year-old Frenchman Mannarino, in his 15th US Open, and the 23-year-old Czech Lehecka are both attempting to reach the last eight for the first time. Mannarino fends off a third set point before holding after six deuces. It’s 5-5.
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Updated at 18.11 BST
The support, it has to be said, for each player is fairly muted in the opening exchanges, because the stands are nowhere near full, unlike for Coco Gauff’s early match yesterday. Pegula is locked in from the off, breaking to 15 in the opening game, before holding to love and then breaking from deuce when she treats a second serve with utter disdain by battering a backhand winner. Li is already glancing up at her box looking for answers.
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Pegula and Li have made their entrance. Amid all the aforementioned fury in New York, Pegula, as always, has been quietly going about her business, and last year’s finalist enters this round-of-16 match yet to drop a set. I don’t know that much about Li, I must admit, but the 25-year-old has been making decent progress this year and recently reached a WTA 250 final in Cleveland. But this is her first time on Ashe – how will she handle the occasion? At least she knows the crowd won’t be against her – though which American will shade the support?
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And here’s what happened yesterday, if you need to catch up:
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Tumaini’s written a good piece on all the player rage:
Daniel Altmaier had nothing more to say. Moments after one of the biggest wins of his career, the German unwittingly found himself on the receiving end of Stefanos Tsitsipas’s ire during their handshake at the net. Before Tsitsipas could finish, though, Altmaier had walked away from the net and he refused to engage in the Greek’s attempts to argue with him.
Altmaier shrugs at the first mention of the incident: “Even if I would have lost, I would not enter discussions because it’s just like heat of the moment. You need to cool down; let’s see if he reacts to it or he sticks to his opinion while cooling down on an exercise bike in the player gym late at night.”
Although Altmaier had the wherewithal to think clearly in the heat of battle, the same cannot be said for many other players in New York over the past week, a tournament that has been dominated by outbursts of anger and frustration from players. “Lots of drama,” says Jessica Pegula, laughing. “I don’t know. My matches have been pretty no drama, so I’m not really sure what’s going on with everybody else. I don’t know. It’s just that New York City tends to bring out just a lot of drama, I guess.”
In hindsight, the Daniil Medvedev show on the first night of the tournament was a sign of things to come as he lambasted the umpire before inciting the Louis Armstrong Stadium audience into a six-minute protest while Benjamin Bonzi held match point in their first round match. Although that incident sparked a dramatic comeback, Medvedev lost in five unforgettable sets.
Then, after crashing out of the tournament in a second round loss to Taylor Townsend, Jelena Ostapenko crashed out on the court. Townsend later said Ostapenko’s heated comments towards her had included the Latvian accusing her of having “no education” and “no class”. Tsitsipas, who was apparently frustrated by Altmaier’s successful underarm serve in their second round match, tried to send his opponent a message after the match: “Next time, don’t wonder why I hit you, OK? No, I’m just saying if you serve underarm…” he said, his voice trailing off. By that time, Altmaier had removed himself from the conversation.
You can read the rest here.
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Preamble
Hello! And welcome to today’s coverage of the US Open, as we hit the midway point in the final slam of the year. Despite all the noise and chaos over the past week in New York – including Daniil Medvedev’s mighty meltdown, Jelena Ostapenko’s ugly comments towards Taylor Townsend (for which Ostapenko has finally apologised), Stefanos Tsitsipas’s underarm serve fury and seven injury retirements on the men’s side – there’s a slight sense of calm at the start of day eight, with only six fourth-round singles matches in the day session.
Starting on Arthur Ashe in a few minutes it’s the all-American encounter between last year’s runner-up Jessica Pegula and Ann Li, followed by the man of the tournament so far, Carlos Alcaraz, against France’s Arthur Rinderknech. Play on Louis Armstrong is already under way, with Adrian Mannarino and Jiri Lehecka fighting for a place in their first US Open quarter-final. Then it’s the two Taylors – Townsend takes on the 2024 Wimbledon winner Barbora Krejcikova and Fritz faces the Czech Tomas Machac – before Aryna Sabalenka (last but certainly not least as the defending champion) rounds things off against Spain’s Cristina Bucsa. Let’s hope, for Laura Robson’s sake at least, there isn’t another marriage proposal in Sabalenka’s match. The shame.
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Updated at 18.01 BST