Kyrgios stuns top-ranked defending champion Medvedev to reach U.S. Open quarter-finals

Nick Kyrgios sat in the Arthur Ashe Stadum locker room after ending Daniil Medvedev's U.S. Open title defence and stay at No. 1 in the rankings and felt a mix of pride and relief.

Pride at the big-serving, solid-returning performance that resulted in a 7-6 (11), 3-6, 6-3, 6-2 victory over Medvedev on Sunday night, the latest in a series of career-altering results that carried Kyrgios to his first quarter-final at Flushing Meadows on the heels of his run to his first Grand Slam final at Wimbledon.

And relief, Kyrgios explained as he fiddled with the grey Boston Celtics cap he was wearing to his post-match news conference, at being able to come through when the lights are the brightest and stakes the highest, "because there's just so much pressure every time I go out on court, so much expectation, so much unpredictability of what I can do."

The 23rd-seeded Kyrgios, a 27-year-old from Australia, never had managed to make it past the third round of the U.S. Open until now, going 0-4 at that stage in the past. He also never has managed to parlay his unquestioned skill into the terrific play with any semblance of the consistency he is displaying lately.

"I'm just glad I'm finally able to show New York my talent," Kyrgios said after delivering 21 aces and employing his typical go-for-broke style against Medvedev. "I haven't had too many great trips here."

He reached his first Grand Slam semifinal, then first Grand Slam final, at the All England Club in July, before losing to Novak Djokovic in the title match. Then Kyrgios won his first ATP title in three years at Washington in August. He followed that up with a victory over Medvedev at a hard-court tournament in Montreal soon after. He leads the ATP Tour in match wins since June.

Medvedev likened the way Kyrgios played Sunday to the level regularly reached by Rafael Nadal, who owns 22 Grand Slam titles and plays his fourth-round match Monday against American Frances Tiafoe, and Djokovic, who has 20 majors but is not at the U.S. Open because he is not vaccinated against COVID-19 and so was not allowed to travel to the United States.

"Didn't miss a lot. Didn't really surprise me," Medvedev said. "If he plays like this 'til end of the tournament, he has all the chances to win it."

Kyrgios is still Kyrgios during the course of a match, and was again on this evening.

Unsure of the relevant rule, he lost a point by running around the net to hit a ball that was going to land way out, then celebrated what he thought was a terrific play by raising a finger to make an "I'm No. 1" gesture.

During his on-court interview, Kyrgios sheepishly told the crowd: "I still can't believe the bonehead play I made over here. I thought it was legal. That's going to be all over `SportsCentre,' so I'm going to like an idiot."

He yelled at his guest box. He argued with the chair umpire and drew a warning for cursing. He smacked a ball in anger that ricocheted off a blue wall behind a baseline, coming close to flying over and landing amid spectators.

Medvedev, meanwhile, had been playing well enough to win all nine sets he played in Week 1 and look ready to give himself a shot at becoming the first man to win consecutive trophies in New York since Roger Federer grabbed the last of his five in a row from 2004-08.

But the 26-year-old Russian said he was bothered by a sore throat and generally "felt a little bit sick," which he attributed to too-powerful air conditioning in the U.S. that he finds "just crazy."

Now Medvedev — whose victory over Djokovic in the 2021 U.S. Open final ended his bid for the first calendar-year Grand Slam in men's tennis since 1969 — will relinquish the top ranking. Three players have a chance to replace him there: Nadal, Carlos Alcaraz and Casper Ruud.

Kyrgios has said that had he won Wimbledon, he might not have shown up at the U.S. Open at all. If he managed to win a Grand Slam title, he figured, the motivation to earn one would dissipate.

Right before this tournament began, Kyrgios sat down with a small group of reporters and talked about missing home — his brother recently had a child; his mother was ill — and how much he can't wait to return to Australia after months away. So his first-round match would be a "win-win," he said: "If I win, it's more money and another great result. If I lose, I get to go home."

On Sunday night, Kyrgios was asked whether he still thought that way.

"Three more matches, potentially, then we never have to play tennis again," came the reply.

And then Kyrgios smiled a wide smile.

Dabrowski advances to women's doubles quarters

Ottawa's Gabriela Dabrowski and Mexican partner Giuliana Olmos have advanced to the women's doubles quarter-finals of the U.S. Open.

Dabrowski and Olmos beat Japan's Ena Shibahara and Asia Muhammad of the United States 6-3, 3-6, 7-6 (8) on Sunday at the Grand Slam event.

Dabrowski and Olmos, the tournament's fifth seed, won a single tiebreak to Shibahara and Muhammad's none.

Although Shibahara and Muhammad had three aces to Dabrowski and Olmos's two, they had six double faults to the victors' four.

In mixed doubles action Sunday night, Dabrowski and partner Max Purcell of Australia, were eliminated in the round of 16 by Leylah Fernandez of Laval, Que., and her partner Jack Sock of Nebraska, 4-6, 6-7(4). Fernandez and Sock advance to Tuesday's quarter-finals. Their opponent is still to be determined.

Gauff claims spot in U.S. Open quarters for 1st time

Coco Gauff raised a fist, then wagged her right index finger, responding to, and riling up even more, a loud-louder-loudest Arthur Ashe Stadium crowd that was standing and screaming. Gauff's U.S. Open opponent, Zhang Shuai, covered both ears with her hands to shield them from what she described later as a "Boom!" of sound.

Gauff and her fans were reacting excitedly to quite a point, one in which the 18-year-old Floridian raced to her right for a defensive forehand, then changed directions to sprint and slide into a backhand that drew a netted volley from Zhang. Just four points later, Gauff was a quarter-finalist at Flushing Meadows for the first time.

Gauff, the French Open runner-up in June, came back in each set to beat China's Zhang 7-5, 7-5 on Sunday to become the youngest American to make it this far at the U.S. Open since Melanie Oudin was 17 in 2009.

"Here, I can't hear myself scream. Makes me want to do it more. I think I'm feeding off the momentum a lot. I enjoy it," said No. 12 seed Gauff, who meets No. 17 Caroline Garcia of France on Tuesday. "New York is bringing out a side of me that I haven't had since I was 15, so it's nice."

Garcia is coming off a hard-court title at Cincinnati and stretched her winning streak to 12 matches by eliminating No. 29 Alison Riske-Amritraj of the U.S. 6-4, 6-1.

After trailing 5-4 in the opening set, then 5-3 in the second, which she was a point from losing, Gauff was buoyed by spectators who cheered her every point and chanted "Let's go, Coco!" as the end neared. She improved to 4-0 in Ashe this year after having never previously won a match at the biggest arena in Grand Slam tennis.

Zhang, at 33 the oldest woman to reach the fourth round, said it was more noise than she's ever heard at a match.

They competed mostly from the baseline, and the longer the exchanges, the more success Gauff found: She claimed a 45-26 edge in points that lasted five or more strokes.

Zhang started getting a bit better of the back-and-forth midway through the second set, and when she hit a backhand winner of her own, she broke to lead 5-3.

That set point was frittered away when Zhang sent a backhand long. Gauff smacked — what else? — a down-the-line backhand winner for her third break point of that game, then delivered a good return to a corner that drew a long backhand to make it 5-4 and start a four-game, match-closing run.

Everyone's known how talented Gauff is for a while now. After all, at 15, she became the youngest qualifier in Wimbledon history in 2019, beat Venus Williams in the first round of the main draw and made it all the way to the fourth. Last month, she became the second-youngest doubles No. 1 in WTA history.

None of the eight women in action Sunday had ever been past the fourth round at Flushing Meadows; only two have reached semifinals at any Grand Slam tournament: Gauff and No. 5 Ons Jabeur.

WATCH | U.S. Open defeat likely concludes Serena Williams' historic 25-year career:

Serena Williams loses in third round of U.S. Open

2 years ago

Duration 3:07

Tennis legend Serena Williams lost to Ajla Tomljanović in a nail-biting third round match at the U.S. Open, likely concluding Williams' historic 25-year career.

The other quarter-final on that half of the women's field will be between Ajla Tomljanovic, the player who beat Serena Williams in the third round, and Jabeur, who defeated No. 18 Veronika Kudermetova 7-6 (1), 6-4. Tomljanovic got past Liudmila Samsonova 7-6 (8), 6-1 at Louis Armstrong Stadium in a matchup between unseeded players.

Tomljanovic is a 29-year-old Australian who is now into her third Grand Slam quarter-final after making it that far at Wimbledon the past two years. On Wednesday, Tomljanovic beat Williams in three sets in what is expected to be the last match of the 23-time Grand Slam champion's career.

WATCH | Serena Williams loses to Tomljanović in possible final match at U.S. Open:

Serena goes down swinging at U.S. Open in final match of her career

2 years ago

Duration 5:32

Tennis legend Serena Williams battled hard over more than three hours, but fell to Ajla Tomljanović 7-5, 6-7, 6-1.

Ruud set for quarter-final clash with Berrettini

The other quarter-final on the top half of the men's bracket is 2022 French Open runner-up Casper Ruud against 2021 Wimbledon runner-up Matteo Berrettini.

No. 5 seed Ruud made it to his first U.S. Open quarter-final — and stayed in the hunt to attain the No. 1 ranking by tournament's end — with a 6-1, 6-2, 6-7 (4), 6-2 victory over Corentin Moutet. Berrettini defeated Alejandro Davidovich Fokina 3-6, 7-6 (2), 6-3, 4-6, 6-2.