Sam Querrey becomes first American male quarter-finalist since 2011; Diego Schwartzman and Kevin Anderson complete unlikely bottom half quarter-final line-up
Monday 4 September 2017 06:05, UK
Denis Shapovalov saw his US Open ambitions come to an end as he was beaten by Pablo Carreno Busta in the fourth round.
The teenage Canadian qualifier, who is predicted to become a future grand slam champion, succumbed to the Spanish 12th seed 6-7(2) 6-7(4) 6-7(3).
Carreno Busta, who qualified for his second grand slam quarter-final appearance, proved to be too consistent for the talented 18-year-old under the roof of the Arthur Ashe Stadium in New York.
The encounter was decided on fine margins with both players exchanging breaks of serve in each set but Shapovalov's greater number of unforced errors proved costly.
The 18-year-old started strongly securing an early break before serving for the first set at 5-3 only to allow the Spaniard to recover, despite creating three break points at 6-5, and take the set into a tie-break which Carreno Busta dominated from the off.
The momentum that the Spaniard had created continued into the second set however when tasked with serving out for the set at 5-3 the roles were reversed as this time the Canadian managed to find the resolve to extend the set into a second tiebreak, which went the way of the determined Spaniard.
After coming through three rounds of qualifying the likelihood of Shapovalov producing a remarkable comeback victory in five sets looked slim but the Canadian continued to believe and raced into a 3-0 lead in the third stage.
However, the persistent world No 19, who will make his US Open quarter-final debut on Tuesday, responded in fine fashion to take the set into a third tie-break of the match which he secured to set up a meeting with Argentina's Diego Schwartzman.
The 25-year-old reached the quarter-finals at a grand slam for the first time in his career with a 7-6(3) 7-5 2-6 6-2 victory over France's 16th seed Lucas Pouille.
In the evening session Sam Querrey followed up his run to the semi-final at Wimbledon with a blistering 6-2 6-2 6-1 victory over Germany's Mischa Zverev, whose serve-volley approach had taken out Andy Murray at the Australian Open earlier this year.
But he had no answer to 17th seed Querrey who had never been beyond the fourth round in New York and fired 55 winners to go with just eight unforced errors to race through the match for the loss of just five game in 77 minutes.
Querrey's victory means he is the first American an to reach the US Open quarter-final since 2011 and he will face 28th seed Kevin Anderson in the last eight as he bids to become the first American winner of the men's singles since Andy Roddick in 2013.
South African Anderson matched his best ever Grand Slam performance by reaching the quarter-final with a 6-4 6-3 6-7 6-4 win over Italy's Paolo Lorenzi.
Anderson was a Flushing Meadows quarter-finalist in 2015 before losing to Stan Wawrinka but like the other three men remaining in his half will feel he has never had a better chance of a Grand Slam final.
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