Djokovic reaches U.S. Open 3rd round after opponent retires due to injury
Wimbledon champion Krejcikova eliminated, Gauff advances on women's side
A U.S. Open match that Novak Djokovic already expected to be difficult was threatening to become a toss-up as he struggled with his serve.
Missing more than he made, Djokovic couldn't get many quick points Wednesday night. He acknowledged that he should have lost the second set, and if his opponent didn't get injured and have to stop, maybe he wouldn't even have won that match.
Once he had, the defending champion was only looking ahead.
"The matches are only going to get tougher from here. I know that, but I'm fine," Djokovic said. "I'll find my way, as I have done many times in my career."
Djokovic reached the third round when Laslo Djere had to retire with the No. 2 seed leading his Serbian countryman 6-4, 6-4, 2-0.
Djere was leading 4-2 in the second set when he appeared to be troubled by pain near his hip and was visited by a trainer later in the set. He finished that set, which lasted 69 minutes after the first one went 60, but didn't last much longer.
"In the end, not the kind of finish that we players or crowd wants to see, but I think it's probably due to that physical battle that we had in the opening two sets," Djokovic said.
Historic win
It was the 90th win at the U.S. Open for Djokovic, making him the first man to reach that total at all four Grand Slams. The 24-time major champion will play No. 28 seed Alexei Popyrin on Friday.
Djere was the only player to win a set against Djokovic at last year's U.S. Open, grabbing the first two in their third-round encounter before Djokovic rallied.
"So I knew coming into the match that if I don't serve well, which was the case, I'm going to have to really grind and work for my points a lot," Djokovic said. "That's what I guess caused the two sets to be played over two hours."
Djokovic made only 47 per cent of his first serves and appeared to be struggling physically himself earlier in the match, which was just his second since winning the gold medal in the Olympics.
Djere had two chances to break Djokovic's serve for would have given him a 5-2 lead in the second set. Instead, he wouldn't win another game, with Djokovic breaking to win the set when Djere yanked a forehand out of bounds.
"All in all, of course, I have to be happy with the win," Djokovic said, "and happy that in important moments I managed to play one ball more than him over the net, I guess find the right shots or anticipate well as I did in the set point in the second set."
Krejcikova ousted
Frances Tiafoe is getting the rematch he wants, a second shot at Ben Shelton at the U.S. Open.
But there won't be a second straight Grand Slam title for Barbora Krejcikova.
The Wimbledon champion was knocked out of the U.S. Open in the second round on Wednesday, defeated by Elena-Gabriela Ruse 6-4, 7-5.
The No. 8-seeded Krejcikova won her second Grand Slam singles title this summer, but then she didn't play any matches after the Paris Olympics. She acknowledged last week not knowing where her level of play was.
Turns out, it wasn't good enough.
"I mean, winning Wimbledon is amazing. It's a great, great, great result, I'm very proud about it and how I was able to handle everything there," said Krejcikova, who hadn't played a tournament on hard courts since February.
"I think I was playing quite well, definitely better than in the first match. I think my game was improving, but it just wasn't enough."
No woman has won Wimbledon and the U.S. Open in the same year since Serena Williams in 2012.
Defending champion Coco Gauff marched into the third round with a 6-4, 6-0 victory over Tatjana Maria. The No. 3 seed will next face No. 27 seed Elina Svitolina.
Tiafoe had short work on the steamiest day of the tournament thus far, with temperatures in New York surpassing 32 degrees C. The No. 20 seed won the first two sets before his opponent, Alexander Shevchenko, retired after the first game of the third set, one of two men's matches in which a player stopped.
Shelton, the No. 13 seed, later beat Roberto Bautista Agut 6-3, 6-4, 6-4. He ousted Tiafoe last year in the quarterfinals, stopping Tiafoe from what would have been a second straight trip to the U.S. Open semifinals.
"Obviously he's very much like me in how excited and energetic he is on the court," Tiafoe said, "and has such a big game and big shots and serves big and gets the crowd going."
Well, maybe not quite as well as Tiafoe does.
"I know that the people love him here. Probably more than me. He's electric here, and his crowds are electric here," the 21-year-old Shelton said.
"It will be a battle. It will be a war just like the last two times we've played. Yeah, I'm more than excited to be out there with him again."
Career best for Ruse
Ruse, a 26-year-old from Romania, advanced to the third round of a Grand Slam for the first time and will play No. 26 seed Paula Badosa, who eliminated American Taylor Townsend 6-3, 7-5.
Badosa continued her resurgence in a strong summer by reaching the third round of the U.S. Open for the first time.
"I know it's just a third round, but I was really looking forward to doing this in New York," said Badosa, a Spaniard who was born in New York.
Jiri Lehecka ignored the heat to engineer the biggest comeback of his career, rallying to beat Mitchell Krueger 6-7 (5), 0-6, 6-4, 6-4, 7-5 in a match that finished a minute shy of four hours. Lehecka, the No. 32 seed, not only came from two sets down for the first time in his career, but he was even down 3-0 in the third set against the American qualifier.
"I kind of dug back into the match with a big fight, and then the fourth set and fifth set was just a battle and we were both fighting for every point," Lehecka said.
He will face No. 6 seed Andrey Rublev, who also came from two sets down to outlast Arthur Rinderknech 4-6, 5-7, 6-1, 6-2, 6-2.
Past U.S. Open finalists Aryna Sabalenka and Alexander Zverev both won their matches in straight sets, while Olympic gold medalist Zheng Qinwen, the No. 7 seed, rallied passed Erika Andreeva in three sets.
Another women's third-round match will see No. 14 seed Madison Keys against No. 33 Elise Mertens. Keys, the 2017 runner-up in Flushing Meadows, rolled past Maya Joint 6-4, 6-0, while Mertens knocked out Ajla Tomljanovic 6-3, 6-2.
Shapovalov heading home
Canada's Dennis Shapovalov is out of the U.S. Open after he and Soonwoo Kwon of South Korea dropped their first-round men's doubles match.
The duo were beat 6-4, 6-4 by Italy's Flavio Cobolli and Dominic Stricker of Switzerland in a one-hour, 11-minute match.
Shapovalov and Kwon fired four aces, but also had 24 unforced errors compared to just eight for Cobolli and Stricker.
The 25-year-old Shapovalov, who hails from Richmond Hill, Ont., was eliminated from the men's singles draw Tuesday with a straight-sets loss to Botic van De Zandschulp in first-round action.
Montreal's Gabriel Diallo is the lone Canadian still playing singles at the Grand Slam event, and the 22-year-old is set to face Arthur Fils of France Thursday in a second-round matchup.
Two Canadians remain in women's doubles action, with Ottawa's Gabriela Dabrowski and Erin Routliffe of New Zealand set to face Leylah Fernandez of Laval, Que., and Kazakhstan's Yulia Putintseva on Thursday.
WATCH | Canada's Diallo posts 1st-ever Grand Slam win Monday at U.S. Open:
With files from The Canadian Press
