New York, (UNI) Novak Djokovic (No. 2 seed) managed to come back from two sets down to beat Laslo Djere in full sets in the men’s singles third round, while China’s Wang Xinyu came out winner in both her singles and doubles matches at the US Open on Friday.
The 36-year-old Serbian clawed past his countryman 4-6, 4-6, 6-1, 6-1, 6-3 after three hours and 45 minutes to keep his hopes alive for a record-extending 24th major title.
“I hope the fans enjoyed the show. It was definitely not so enjoyable for me, especially in the first two sets. It was one of the toughest matches I’ve played here in many years,” Djokovic said.
It’s not an easy day to China’s Wang Xinyu also, as the 22-year-old overcame Slovakia’s Anna-Karolina Schmiedlova 4-6, 6-3, 6-2 before partnering Hsieh Su-Wei of Chinese Taipei to beat local pair Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Anastasia Potapova 3-6, 7-6(4), 7-5 to reach both the women’s singles and doubles round of 16.
Her fellow Chinese Zhang Zhizhen and Zhu Lin fell at the singles third round, with male sensation Zhang losing to Australian wildcard Rinky Hijikata 6-3, 6-3, 4-6, 6-3 and Zhu beaten by 15th-seed Belinda Bencic of Switzerland 7-6(1), 2-6, 6-3 on women’s part.
“I thought I could make a breakthrough on his serve, but today his serve was very good, while my own serve was not as good as in the first two matches,” said Zhang, who upset No. 5 seed Casper Ruud to reach the men’s singles round of 32 and became the first male player from the Chinese mainland to have beaten a world Top-10 opponent.
Also on Friday, 20-year-old American Ben Shelton struck 26 aces to overcome Russia’s Aslan Karatsev 6-4, 3-6, 6-2, 6-0 to advance to the fourth round of the tournament.
“I am really pleased with my performance today,” said Shelton. “Happy with the way I served. I think it was one of my best serving days ever.”
In the women’s play, world No. 1 Iga Swiatek eased past Slovenia’s Kaja Juvan 6-0, 6-1 to secure her place in the last 16.
“My level was high, and I didn’t make a lot of unforced errors,” Swiatek said. “I’m happy with my performance and overall with the way I started, and then just kind of [was] disciplined and didn’t change my level till the end of the match.”
Former No. 1 Caroline Wozniacki won 10 of the last 11 games to beat Jennifer Brady 4-6, 6-3, 6-1, reaching her best result at a major in more than five years.
“I’m very excited to have this opportunity and to play again and play at the highest level,” she said.
“When you look at yourself and you feel like you still have a chance to do something really cool and really good, then you got to take the chance. You never know if you don’t try it.”
Elsewhere, China’s Yang Zhaoxuan and her Chinese Taipei partner Latisha Chan were edged out by Karolina Pliskova and Donna Vekic 4-6, 7-5, 6-2 in the women’s doubles, while another Chinese Xu Yifan and Joran Vliegen from Belgium conquered Argentina’s Andres Molteni and Alexa Guarachi Mathison of Chile 7-6 (2), 4-6, 10-6 in the mixed doubles.
