US Open - Day 5: 'Out of gas' Djokovic crashes out to Popyrin

The world No.2 admits his recent gold medal run at the Paris Games had taken a lot of out of him and in fact, the entire Olympic singles podium of Djokovic, Carlos Alcaraz and Lorenzo Musetti, all lost at the US Open within a 24-hour period between Thursday and Friday.

“Obviously it had an effect. I spent a lot of energy winning the gold, and I did arrive to New York just not feeling fresh mentally and physically,” confessed Djokovic, who was bidding to become the first ever tennis player to win 25 Grand Slam titles.

“But because it's US Open, I gave it a shot and I tried my best. I didn't have any physical issues. I just felt out of gas and you could see that with the way I played.

“Just from the very beginning, from the first match, I just didn't find myself at all on this court. It's all I can say. Life moves on. Just try and recalibrate and look for what's next.”

Popyrin, who enjoyed a maiden Masters 1000 title triumph in Montreal earlier this month, was facing Djokovic for the third time at the Slams this season, having lost to the Serb at both the Australian Open and Wimbledon in four sets.

The 28th-seeded Aussie felt he didn’t take his opportunities in his previous showdowns with Djokovic and was determined not to make the same mistakes again on Friday.

“I think the way I composed myself and the way I tactically played the match, that was up there with one of the best matches that I have played,” said the 25-year-old Popyrin.

➡️ Interview Alexei Popyrin: "I'm able to compete with the best players in the world"

Big stuff from Big Foe

Popyrin’s reward is a last-16 clash with home favourite Frances Tiafoe, who avenged his defeat to Ben Shelton in last year’s US Open quarter-finals by claiming a 4-6, 7-5, 6-7(5), 6-4, 6-3 victory over his 13th-seeded compatriot in an exciting four-hour affair.

Tiafoe and Shelton had a heartwarming moment at the net after the match, where they shared words and embraced amidst a roaring Arthur Ashe stadium.

“At the net, he was just saying, you know, ‘You're so cold at tennis. You better keep going’. And he was pissed that I was so casual on that volley at the end,” revealed Tiafoe with a laugh.

“I was, like, ‘Dude, it looked casual but I was tight as hell’. You know, he's just saying a bunch of kind words and stuff like that. Saying keep going and all the best to you going forward, try to win the Open.”

➡️ Full men’s singles draw

Zheng, Vekic book Olympics final rematch

Four weeks ago, Zheng Qinwen and Donna Vekic squared off in arguably the biggest match of their respective careers.

It was the gold medal contest at the Paris Olympics and it saw Zheng secure her place at the top of the podium with Vekic clinching silver for Croatia.

The duo are now ready for a rematch in the US Open fourth round after Zheng eased past Jule Niemeier 6-2, 6-1 and Vekic overcame Peyton Stearns 7-5, 6-4.

“For me it's just another match to go. It doesn't matter who I play against,” said Zheng, who has shot to national hero status back home in China following her exploits in Paris.

“But of course, in Olympic Games I fight a lot. I almost give everything Olympic Games, but I'm sure too playing US Open. I also going to give everything I had in that day because I also consider US Open really, really important for me because Slams is always my dream.”

Zheng is expecting a tougher task against Vekic on hard courts compared to clay, and is bracing herself for another big battle.

They are both former US Open quarter-finalists (Zheng last year and Vekic in 2019) and are enjoying breakthrough 2024 campaigns.

“She played an unbelievable match in Paris. She was too good that match. I had couple of chances, but didn't manage to pull them off,” said Vekic of the No.7 seed.

“But it's a new match. We're a couple of weeks later. It's a different surface, thankfully for me. Yeah, she's playing really good tennis. I'm going to try to prepare well and do a good tactic with my team, and hopefully it will be a different outcome.”

Gauff v Navarro 3.0

In US Open fourth-round action on Sunday, Americans Coco Gauff and Emma Navarro will face off for the third time this season after splitting their previous two meetings.

Navarro got the better of Gauff in their most recent clash at Wimbledon, while Gauff triumphed in their first encounter in Auckland in January.

Gauff said she felt “déjà vu” on Friday when she trailed Elina Svitolina by a set before she mounted a successful comeback. The defending US Open champion rallied back from a set down in three of her seven matches en route to the title in New York last year and drew on that experience to overcome Svitolina.

“It was in my mind today. It gave me a lot of confidence just because it felt like déjà vu a little bit. I think I won the first set against Caroline Wozniacki but it felt like that match today, honestly,” said Gauff, referring to her three-set win over the Dane in the fourth round at the US Open 12 months ago.

“They're completely different players, but they kind of play similar in a way. Just making you hit a lot of balls, can hit some winners a couple of times. So I did have déjà vu when it came to that match, so it gave me confidence today for sure.”

➡️ Full women’s singles draw

Badosa buoyed by New York crowd

Late in the final set of her third-round clash with an in-form Elena-Gabriela Ruse, Paula Badosa found herself staring down a match point, on her own serve, at 4-5.

She took moment to look up to the crowd inside Louis Armstrong stadium and decided to soak it all in.

“I saw the crowd cheering so much for me and pumping me up. I think there I was, like, having that connection with them, and it gave me so much strength in that moment,” said the Spanish former world No.2.

“So I just forgot everything, and I was just like, I'm going to go for my shots. I'm going to be aggressive. Because maybe I was struggling a little bit in that moment that I was feeling so much pressure that I needed to win this match, and maybe I was the one I had more expectations in this match compared to her.”

Badosa hit a service winner, down the T and went on to hold serve. She then traded breaks of serve in the next to games as the contest fittingly went to a deciding tiebreak.

Badosa admits she felt like she was “having a heart attack” in the breaker but she still managed to close out the win, 4-6, 6-1, 7-6(10/8), over Ruse to reach the US Open fourth round for the first time in her career. She told Spanish press she was impressed by Ruse’s defence during the match, and said for a second there she felt like she was facing another Romanian, Simona Halep, when she was ranked No.1 in the world.

The win earned Badosa a showdown with China’s Wang Yafan, and makes her just the fifth Spanish player in the Open Era to make the round of 16 at each of the four women’s singles Grand Slam events after Arantxa Sanchez Vicario, Conchita Martinez, Carla Suarez Navarro and Garbine Muguruza.

Badosa hit a low point midway this season. She had returned from a stress fracture in her back earlier in the year but found herself still struggling physically and unable to string together any good results.

Things then started to turn around for her after Madrid. She made the last 16 in Rome and Wimbledon, won the WTA 500 title in D.C, and reached the semi-finals in Cincinnati before her run to the second week in New York this fortnight.

She says she’s gained new perspective when it comes to her approach to the sport.

“There are some moments I can appreciate it a bit more. Just sometimes I'm on the court, and I just look up. I'm, like, ‘Whoa, this is beautiful’.

“Before I wasn't appreciating that moment that much. So in that it helped me. But also, at the end of the day I'm so competitive. I just want to win, win, win, win and be in the last round. So sometimes I don't appreciate it that much, but still, I think I do it a little bit more than before my injury.

“Maybe I think what changed also is that I connect more with the fans and with the crowd. Before maybe I was closing myself in a shell, and now I just try to find help from there. I think we have a nice connection, and it's cool.”

Quote of the day

“First of all, when I was a junior I liked him as a player. At that time he was something different from the Big Three, Big Four sorry, or Big Five, I don’t know if we count Stan, so he was something more new and I liked to watch his matches, he was talented. Then we played for the first time at the US Open in 2017. After the match I told him I wish you will qualify for London and you will win it and in the end it happened that year. And after that, little by little, we started to have a better connection. When the matches we played each other, we had good respect to each other, so it kind of, again, built a bit more.”

– Andrey Rublev discusses the origins of his 'bromance' with Grigor Dimitrov, who will be his next opponent in the US Open round of 16.

Stat of the day

With his straight-sets success over Francisco Comesana, 12th-seeded Taylor Fritz has notched his 50th Grand Slam match-win today and becomes the first American man to reach the fourth round at each of the four Grand Slams in the same season since Andre Agassi in 2003.

“It's a pretty cool thing for me to do, because just last year I was really struggling with Grand Slam results,” said Fritz of his latest achievement.