Casper Ruud became the first Norwegian man to reach the US Open quarter-finals with a 6-1, 6-2, 6-7 (4/7), 6-2 victory over French lucky loser Corentin Moutet.
The 23-year-old Ruud, seeded fifth, will face Italy’s Matteo Berrettini for a place in the semi-finals.
Moutet, the world number 112, had lost in qualifying before injury pull-outs opened up a slot in the main draw.
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However, having knocked out 2016 champion Stan Wawrinka and 2021 quarter-finalist Botic de Zandschulp on his way to a maiden fourth round appearance at the majors, Moutet ran out of steam despite a gritty third set performance.
Playing on Arthur Ashe Stadium for the first time, Ruud fired 43 winners past his opponent as he made the last 16 of a Slam for the third time in 2022.
TIAFOE’S BLUNT REPLY TO KYRGIOS QUESTION
Meanwhile, Francis Tiafoe progressed through to the fourth round but was in no mood to talk at length about Australian Nick Kyrgios.
Tiafoe said last week that he thought Kyrgios should have won his Wimbledon final against Novak Djokovic and was asked about him again after seeing off Diego Schwartzman 7-6 (9/7), 6-4, 6-4.
Initially Tiafoe was more than happy to field the question, first asked about his friendship with Kyrgios and how the Australian has been performing.
“What he’s doing is great, seeing him play so well is great,” he said.
“When you see most of the matches he’s playing he’s packing out stadiums and he’s got a huge match tomorrow with Medvedev. I’ll be watching that. I love watching him try and give everything to the game because he’s really good for the sport of tennis.”
But then another journalist asked Tiafoe about Kyrgios a few minutes later and the tone of his question did not seem to sit well with the American.
“I wanted to circle back to Nick Kyrgios and your match with him at the Citi Open,” the journalist opened.
“Just a general question about Nick. He’s able to kind of create this chaos in his matches and make the atmosphere crazy and he seems to thrive in it and it’s tough for some of his opponents. I was wondering if you have any observations about it?”
“I’m here to talk about me being in the fourth round, I’m not here to talk about Nick Kyrgios,” a blunt Tiafoe replied.
Tiafoe is scheduled to face Rafael Nadal in the fourth round.
SWIATEK’S SNEAKY MOVE RAISES EYEBROWS
Earlier, Iga Swiatek downed unseeded Lauren Davis 6-3, 6-4, although one moment from the world number one turned heads.
Swiatek came back from 1-4 down in the second set to reel off five successive games against the American who called a medical time out in the first set to have her blood pressure taken.
The 21-year-old Pole will face Wimbledon quarter-finalist Jule Niemeier of Germany for a place in the last eight.
Swiatek has now won three matches in a row for the first time since capturing her second French Open in June.
There was one moment in the second set with Davis leading 2-0 when Swiatek was at the net and bizarrely waved her hands in the air.
While the move did not put Davis off, John McEnroe was not a fan of it.
“I don’t know about that. I don’t think that’s legal…that is a little bit below the belt,” the Eurosport expert said.
“The last time I saw that was when I was playing in 1986 I believe and [Mansour] Bahrami came in and served, and put his hands wide open and said, ‘Hit me’. And my partner Peter Fleming hit him in the forehead. And I said, ‘He’s a joke, this guy! I don’t understand what he’s doing. This is serious’.
“And Bahrami was like ‘Good shot Peter, good shot!’ He loved it. I don’t think Swiatek has to do that. She’s so good it seems…but she’ll learn. She’s 21.”
BERRETTINI BOOKS SPOT IN QUARTER-FINALS
Italy’s Matteo Berrettini booked his place in the quarter-finals of the US Open on Sunday to extend his impressive recent run of Grand Slam results.
The 26-year-old 13th seed from Rome defeated Spain’s Alejandro Davidovich Fokina 3-6, 7-6 (7/2), 6-3, 4-6, 6-2 to set up a quarter-final against Ruud.
Although Berrettini missed this year’s French Open and Wimbledon through injury and illness, the Italian performed well at the four Grand Slams preceding those events.
He reached the semi-finals at the Australian Open earlier this year, and was also a quarter-finalist at the US Open last year.
Berrettini was the beaten finalist at Wimbledon in 2021 which came shortly after he reached the last eight at the French Open.
Davidovich Fokina dug deep to take the match to a fifth set but struggled in the decisive fifth set after wrenching his left knee as he stretched to make a return.
