NEW YORK, United States (AP) — The Latest on the U.S. Open tennis tournament (all times local):
12:50 a.m.
Top-ranked Daniil Medvedev ended the historic run of Wu Yibing with a 6-4, 6-2, 6-2 victory in the third round.
The defending champion moves on to face Wimbledon runner-up Nick Kyrgios on Sunday. Medvedev is bidding to become the first repeat champion in Flushing Meadows since Roger Federer won five in a row from 2004-08.
The 22-year-old Wu was the first Chinese man to reach the third round of the U.S. Open.
11 p.m.
Serena Williams tearfully thanked her parents after a loss in what’s expected to be her final match.
Then came the acknowledgement for her older sister.
“I wouldn’t be Serena if there wasn’t Venus. So thank you, Venus,” Williams said. “She’s the only reason Serena Williams ever existed.”
Williams had said before the tournament she was preparing for the end of a career in which she won 23 Grand Slam singles titles. She said she was grateful to everyone who had supported her.
“These are happy tears, I guess,” she said.
10:30 p.m.
Serena Williams’ U.S. Open — maybe her last one — is over.
Williams was eliminated in the third round by Ajla Tomljanovic 7-5, 6-7 (4), 6-1 on Friday.
Williams, who will turn 41 this month, said before the tournament she was preparing to end her tennis career. She didn’t specify if it would be after the U.S. Open, where she earned six of her 23 Grand Slam singles titles.
After she finally lost following a lengthy final game, Williams walked back onto the court to give a wave to the crowd, putting her hand over her heart.
9:50 p.m.
Caroline Garcia has knocked 2019 champion Bianca Andreescu out of the U.S. Open.
The No. 17 seed from France continued her strong summer surge with a 6-3, 6-2 victory that moved her into the fourth round.
Garcia has won 11 straight matches, including the title last month in Cincinnati. She was ranked as low as No. 79 earlier in the summer.
Andreescu’s loss left Serena Williams as the most recent U.S. Open women’s champion in the field. She won the last of three straight in 2014.
9:35 p.m.
Serena Williams has pushed her third-round match to a third set.
Williams needed a tiebreaker that she finally won 7-4 on her fifth set point. She and Ajla Tomljanovic will start the decisive set having played more than 2 hours, 15 minutes.
Williams bounced back from her disappointing end to the first set, winning the first four games of the second and racing to a 5-2 lead. But Tomljanovic erased that, just as she erased a 5-3 deficit in the first set, which she won 7-5.
In what could be the final tournament of her career, Williams will need to win a three-setter for the second straight match. She went the distance to eliminate No. 2 seed Anett Kontaveit on Wednesday.
8:10 p.m.
Serena Williams has lost the first set of her third-round match against Ajla Tomljanovic.
Williams had a 5-3 lead and was serving to win the set. But Tomljanovic broke her serve to start a run of four straight games that allowed the Australian to take it 7-5.
Williams had to go three sets to beat No. 1 Anett Kontaveit in the second round.
7:20 p.m.
Serena Williams has begun her bid to become the oldest woman to reach the fourth round of a Grand Slam tournament in the professional era.
It’s the third night match of the week for the 23-time Grand Slam champion, who is preparing to end her tennis career.
With a win over Australian Ajla Tomljanovic, Williams will keep it going until at least Sunday.
Williams will turn 41 later this month. Three women since 1968 were older when they reached the third round of a major, but none advanced.
5:50 p.m.
Coco Gauff rolled through her match against fellow American Madison Keys, winning 6-2, 6-3 to reach the fourth round.
The No. 12 seed was broken to open the match, but broke right back against the 2017 U.S. Open runner-up in a lengthy second game en route to a 4-1 lead and was never really threatened.
The 18-year-old advanced to face China’s Zhang Shuai.
5:25 p.m.
Martina Navratilova saw a clip of Serena Williams practicing before her second match and noticed her movement appeared to be improved.
The Hall of Famer immediately had one thought.
“I was like, ‘Ooh, Serena is back,’” Navratilova said. “So yeah, I think sky is the limit for her now. I wouldn’t put it past her to win the whole thing.”
Williams plays her third-round match Friday night against Ajla Tomljanovic.
Footwork is one of the areas Navratilova says can be improved through Sense Arena’s virtual reality tennis training program that launches next month. It allows players to do drills such as returning serve and volleying, while swinging a racket that gives a similar feel of a real one, without the chance of injury from repeatedly hitting balls or running on hard courts.
Sense Arena has a hockey program used by five NHL and nine NCAA Division teams. CEO Bob Tetiva said having mastered the swing technology used in hockey made it natural to add tennis. The company, based in the Czech Republic, added Navratilova to its tennis advisory board.
The 59-time Grand Slam champion said she “whiffed” with her first few swings, but quickly got good and saw the benefits of being able to practice indoors or with an injury that limits the ability to run.
“Tennis is a sport that it takes a long time to not be horrible so there’s really no shortcuts,” she said, “but this thing is a small shortcut, really.”
4:15 p.m.
Matteo Berrettini ended Andy Murray’s bid to return to the fourth round of a major, beating the three-time Grand Slam champion 6-4, 6-4, 6-7 (1), 6-3.
Murray, who won his first major at the U.S. Open in 2012, hasn’t reached the round of 16 in one of tennis’ four biggest tournaments since Wimbledon in 2017, when he was ranked No. 1. He later required two hip surgeries that led to absences from the tour.
Berrettini, the No. 13 seed who was a U.S. Open semifinalist in 2019, will face Alejandro Davidovich Fokina on Sunday.
1:50 p.m.
Ons Jabeur made sure there will be at least one top-five woman in the fourth round.
The No. 5 seed rallied to beat No. 31 Shelby Rogers 4-6, 6-4, 6-3, avoiding the type of upset that has filled the first week of play at the U.S. Open.
It’s the first trip to the final 16 in Flushing Meadows for the Wimbledon runner-up, who lost in the third round each of the last three years.
Top-ranked Iga Swiatek is the only other top-five player who got out of the second round. Serena Williams ousted No. 2 Anett Kontaveit, and No. 3 Maria Sakkari and No. 4 Paula Badosa also lost their second match.
Swiatek plays her third-round match Saturday.
11:20 a.m.
Andy Murray leads off play in Arthur Ashe Stadium on Day 5 of the U.S. Open, trying to reach the fourth round of a Grand Slam for the first time in five years.
Serena Williams also has her eyes on a spot in the last 16 when she continues what could be her final tournament Friday night against Ajla Tomljanovic.
Murray was to face No. 13 Matteo Berrettini, with a victory sending the three-time Grand Slam champion into the fourth round for the first time since 2017 at Wimbledon. The 2012 U.S. Open winner will have to get by a past Grand Slam finalist in Berrettini, who also got to the semifinals in Flushing Meadows in 2019.
Americans Coco Gauff and Madison Keys were set to follow them with a third-round match.
Top-ranked Daniil Medvedev plays at night against Wu Yibing, who is trying to become the first Chinese man to reach the fourth round of a Grand Slam event since Kho Sin-Khie at Wimbledon in 1938.
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