Jack Sock upsets No. 7 Marin Cilic at U.S. Open

July 14, 2024

NEW YORK — After Jack Sock completed his third-round upset of Marin Cilic in straight sets Friday afternoon in Louis Armstrong Stadium, he turned to the U.S. Open crowd and, with a big smile, showed a few fencing moves on the court.

The gesture was a nod to Sock’s friend Miles Chamley-Watson, a fencer who, like Sock, competed in the Olympic Games last month in Rio de Janeiro. Chamley-Watson had come to support Sock in his match against the No. 7 seed Cilic.

“Kind of on the spot, I thought of turning the racquet into — I think it’s called a foil? Is that what they call it?” Sock said afterward. “I thought of turning the racquet into one of those and doing something for him for coming out.

“I think people were enjoying it. I’ve seen the video. It looks pretty funny, actually.”

It was an amusing moment at the end of a clinical performance. Sock, the No. 26 seed, rolled to a 6-4, 6-3, 6-3 victory in a match that was even less competitive than the score would indicate. Sock never faced a break point and needed only 101 minutes to dispatch the Croatian — who won the Open two years ago — to reach the fourth round for only the second time in 16 Grand Slam appearances and for the first time in seven trips to Flushing Meadows.

Neon outfits dominate 2016 U.S. Open

Players at the U.S. Open in Flushing Meadows, N.Y., really embraced the highlighter aesthetic.

Sock, 23, won a pair of medals in Rio, including gold in mixed doubles and bronze in men’s doubles, and reached the third round at the French Open and Wimbledon earlier this season. Now he is one win away from his first Grand Slam quarterfinal appearance. He will meet No. 9 seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in the fourth round — with the possibility of facing top-seeded Novak Djokovic in the quarterfinals.

Sock made it clear he isn’t satisfied.

“I feel like I’m definitely more on a mission this year,” Sock said. “Going forward, I feel like where my tennis is and my confidence [in] how I can play, my goal is to be competing to win tournaments that I’m playing in instead of just being content with making the quarters of whatever tournament it is.”

While Sock had an easy time, fellow American Madison Keys, the No. 8 seed in the women’s draw, fell into a 5-1 third-set deficit to unseeded Naomi Osaka of Japan.

But Keys stormed back, winning five straight games to push the match to a tiebreaker. She would prevail for a 7-5, 4-6, 7-6 (7-3) win to reach the fourth round, something she has now done at all four Grand Slams this year.

“Obviously those aren’t the most fun matches,” Keys said. “But I just knew that if I stayed in the match that I could maybe have a chance to come back, and get back into it.

“No matter what the score was, it was always just trying to get back in the match. Once I was able to get a little bit of momentum, I felt like I found my game a bit more. At that point, I knew I had to kind of step up, or else I was going to be going home.”

It wasn’t the first time this week Keys flirted with danger. Playing fellow American Alison Riske in the first round, Keys had to win a second-set tiebreaker to stay in the match before moving on by winning the third.

Now she will be getting another unseeded opponent in the fourth round — but one with a pedigree in former world No. 1 Caroline Wozniacki, who cruised past Monica Niculescu in straight sets to reach the fourth round. Wozniacki, who had gone out in the first round of both the Australian Open and Wimbledon, has had plenty of success here, finishing as the tournament’s runner-up in 2009 and 2014, and making the semifinals in 2010-11.

“I don’t think we have ever really practiced or anything, but she’s obviously a great player,” Keys said. “She loves playing at the U.S. Open. She’s done well here. She’s going to be tough.”

Isner gets upset; Nadal wins

Kyle Edmund, a South African-born Briton, upset 20th-seeded American John Isner, 6-4, 3-6, 6-2, 7-6 (7-5), in a night match.

Edmund, 21, was playing in the third round at a major for the first time and posted his second win over a seeded player in three matches. He beat No. 13 Richard Gasquet in the opening round.

Isner, 31, fell to 3-6 in U.S. Open third-round matches. He had defeated the 84th-ranked Edmund in straight sets at this year’s French Open.

Isner had 27 aces, but he converted just 1 of 7 break points, while Edmund was 3 for 4.

Next up for Edmund is top-ranked Novak Djokovic, who got another free pass, advancing when his third-round opponent, Mikhail Youzhny, stopped because of injury after six games.

Two days earlier, the man defending champion Djokovic was supposed to play in the second round, Jiri Vesely, withdrew a couple of hours before that match because of inflammation in his left forearm.

Youzhny quit after only 31 minutes while trailing 4-2, allowing Djokovic to move into the fourth round at Flushing Meadows for the 10th consecutive year.

In another night match, fourth-seeded Rafael Nadal cruised past Andrey Kuznetsov of Russia, 6-1, 6-4, 6-2, to reach the fourth round for the first time at a Grand Slam since last year’s French Open.

Nadal was troubled only by his six double-faults and has won all nine sets he’s played this week.

In afternoon play, ninth-seeded Jo-Wilfried Tsonga of France became the first men’s player into the round of 16 by beating 23rd-seeded Kevin Anderson — a quarterfinalist in 2015 — 6-3, 6-4, 7-6 (7-4). Each player had 13 aces, but Tsonga managed to break Anderson’s serve twice while saving all seven break points he faced.

Anderson upset Andy Murray in the fourth round last year at Flushing Meadows, but he’s struggled with injuries in 2016.

The U.S. Open is the only major at which Tsonga has not reached the semifinals. He was the 2008 Australian Open runner-up.

Marcos Baghdatis beat Ryan Harrison, 6-3, 7-6 (7-4), 1-6, 6-1, to move into the round of 16, ending the run of the American qualifier who upset No. 5 Milos Raonic in his previous match.

For the 44th-ranked Baghdatis of Cyprus, the victory ends a nine-match losing streak in Grand Slam third rounds. It’s his first appearance in a U.S. Open fourth round and the first fourth round at any major since 2009.

Baghdatis next plays 10th-seeded Gael Monfils of France, who posted a 6-4, 6-2, 6-4 triumph over Spain’s Nicolas Almagro.

On the women’s side, Roberta Vinci, last year’s runner-up, didn’t drop a game in the first set, failed to serve out the match in the second, then hung on in the third to keep another run at Flushing Meadows going.

The seventh-seeded Italian needed nearly two hours to top 102nd-ranked Carina Witthoeft of Germany, 6-0, 5-7, 6-3. This is the fourth time Vinci has reached the round of 16 at the U.S. Open — she’s done it just three times combined at the other majors.

And last year, she stunned Serena Williams in the semis to thwart her Grand Slam bid. It was Vinci’s first major final at age 32.

The 21-year-old Witthoeft, who’s been ranked as high as 49th, is 0-5 against top-10 foes.

Vinci was two points from victory while serving at 5-4 in the second set, but Witthoeft broke back, part of a run of four straight games to even the match. Vinci went up a break to start the third only for Witthoeft to later get the set back on serve.

Then Vinci won the last three games to move on.

Open enjoys record crowd

The U.S. Open surpassed 40,000 spectators for a single session for the first time.

The U.S. Tennis Association announced that Friday’s day session was attended by 40,280 people, topping the record of 38,780 twice over Labor Day weekend in 2014.

— Associated Press

ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7uK3SoaCnn6Sku7G70q1lnKedZMCxu9GtqmislaO7qr%2BOo5ico12ovKS3jK6nrJ2kqHqvu4xwZKaZop67bq%2FIpaCcZZGpera%2FjKinnqZfZ31ygo5pcGhoYmSFd4GWcZqemV1sfnR%2FjGponm5dbYJ0f4xvmWmaYJmypXyRbmqYq6Skv7p6x62kpQ%3D%3D