Sinner and Medvedev set up quarter-final clash as Swiatek faces Pegula in last eight

World number one Jannik Sinner and former champion Daniil Medvedev set up a US Open quarter-final showdown on Monday as both men look to exploit the hole left by the shock exits of Novak Djokovic and Carlos Alcaraz.

Australian Open champion Sinner made the last eight for the second time by seeing off US 14th seed Tommy Paul 7-6 (7/3), 7-6 (7/5), 6-1.

Medvedev, the 2021 champion and runner-up to Djokovic last year, outclassed Portugal’s Nuno Borges 6-0, 6-1, 6-3 to reach the quarter-finals for the fifth time in six years.

Women’s world number one Iga Swiatek, meanwhile, stayed on course for a sixth Grand Slam title with a straight-sets win over Russia’s Liudmila Samsonova.

The Italian Sinner recovered from 4-1 down in the first set to see off Paul, who had been hoping to join compatriots Taylor Fritz and Frances Tiafoe in the quarter-finals in New York.

Medvedev is the only former champion left after the first week defeats of four-time winner Djokovic and 2022 champion Alcaraz.

The world number five easily downed 34th-ranked Borges, whose challenge fizzled out under the weight of 51 unforced errors while Medvedev broke serve eight times.

Sinner and Medvedev will be meeting for the fourth time this year. Sinner came back from two sets to love down to defeat the mercurial Russian in the Australian Open final and came out on top in the Miami semi-finals. Medvedev then triumphed at Wimbledon in a five-set quarter-final.

Jack Draper became the first British man since Andy Murray in 2016 to reach the quarter-finals by seeing off Tomas Machac of the Czech Republic 6-3, 6-1, 6-2.

The 22-year-old left-hander has only dropped serve once over four matches on his way to a maiden Slam quarter-final, winning 47 of 48 service games and saving 20 of 21 break points.

Draper hailed the influence of Murray, the former world number one and 2012 US Open champion who retired from tennis following the Paris Olympics.

The 10th-seeded De Minaur won an all-Australian battle with Jordan Thompson 6-0, 3-6, 6-3, 7-5.

Meanwhile, Jessica Pegula is back in the quarterfinals at the US Open after a 6-4, 6-2 victory over Diana Shnaider on Monday, her seventh trip to that round at a Grand Slam tournament. Now comes the hard part: Pegula is 0-6 in major quarterfinals over her career - and this next one will come against No. 1 Iga Swiatek.

The No. 6-seeded Pegula, an American whose parents own the NFL’s Buffalo Bills and NHL’s Buffalo Sabres, is on quite a run at the moment, having won 13 of her past 14 matches, all on hard courts. That included her second consecutive title in Canada and an appearance in the final at the Cincinnati Open, where she lost to No. 2 Aryna Sabalenka.

Swiatek was tied at 4-all with No. 16 Liudmila Samsonova on Monday night before grabbing seven straight games en route to winning 6-4, 6-1. When Swiatek captured the 2022 US Open for one of her five Grand Slam titles, she eliminated Pegula in the quarterfinals.

Indeed, half of Pegula’s six quarterfinal exits at Slams came against a No. 1 player - Swiatek twice and Ash Barty once.

“I’ll just try to draw from those experiences and kind of how I felt going into the next match, but it’s just so tough,” Pegula said. “I mean, I know you don’t want the cliche answer, but it’s just kind of one match at a time, and every day kind of feels different. It depends on who you are playing, how the conditions are, when you’re playing. There are so many variables day to day.”

Also returning to the quarterfinals was Karolina Muchova, a 6-3, 6-3 winner over No. 5 Jasmine Paolini, the runner-up at the French Open and Wimbledon this season. Muchova next plays No. 22 Beatriz Haddad Maia, who got past 2018 Australian Open champion Caroline Wozniacki 6-2, 3-6, 6-3 to become the first woman from Brazil in the U.S. Open quarterfinals since Maria Bueno in 1968.

Agencies