Defending champion Naomi Osaka is through to the third round of the 2021 US Open by walk-over.
This was after her planned opponent Olga Danilovic withdrew from the tournament on Wednesday.
US Open officials said Danilovic was unable to contest the second-round game for “a medical reason”.
They however gave no further details.
World number three Osaka next plays Kaia Kanepi of Estonia or Canadian Leylah Fernandez.
Defending champion Dominic Thiem will miss the US Open and the rest of the season after failing to recover from a wrist injury.
The 27-year-old Austrian hurt himself at the Mallorca Open in June and has been off the tour since.
“I’m really disappointed not to be able to defend the title in New York,” he said on Twitter on Wednesday.
“It has been a tough decision to make, but I know this is what I have to do.”
The US Open starts on Aug. 30.
Thiem’s comeback five-set victory over Alexander Zverev last year at Flushing Meadows was his first grand slam singles title.
Roger Federer is also out of this year’s US Open, while Rafael Nadal has also been struggling with injury.
Thiem will also miss the ATP Finals’ end-of-season showdown in November, where he was the beaten finalist the previous two years.
Austria’s Dominic Thiem finally claimed his first Grand Slam title with a stunning comeback to beat Germany’s Alexander Zverev 2-6 4-6 6-4 6-3 7-6(6) in the U.S. Open final on Sunday.
The 27-year-old world number three, beaten in his first three Grand Slam finals, started as favourite in this brutal and nerve-jangling match.
But he appeared to have blown his golden chance as he fell two sets behind.
Thiem, who had dropped only one set en route to the final, looked stifled by nerves early on.
But he gradually broke the shackles to hit back from a break down to take the third set.
A limping Thiem trailed 5-3 in a tense decider but Zverev could not close it out and the Austrian summoned some incredible baseline winners to take it into a tie-break.
A gut-wrenching climax saw Thiem squander two match-points from 6-4 with forehand errors.
But he would not be denied, and he set up a third match-point with a passing shot before Zverev fired wide after four hours and two minutes.
“I wish there were two winners today. We both deserved it,” Thiem said on court after a tearful speech from his crestfallen 23-year-old opponent.
He was the second Austrian to win a Grand Slam title after Thomas Muster’s 1995 French Open title.
Naomi Osaka demonstrated her growing maturity to fight back against Victoria Azarenka in a compelling US Open final and claim her third Grand Slam title.
Japanese fourth seed Osaka, 22, won 1-6 6-3 6-3 for her second US Open title.
Osaka was overwhelmed in the first set and was in danger of trailing 3-0 in the second before recovering to win 10 of the next 11 games to take momentum.
Belarusian Azarenka, in her first major final since 2013, was broken for 5-3 in the decider before Osaka served out.
Osaka shrieked with joy as she took her second match point, then calmly lay on the court and stared at the New York sky as she contemplated her latest achievement.
Osaka’s level raised considerably as 31-year-old Azarenka was unable to maintain the intensity she showed in a one-sided opening set.
The fightback ensured Osaka, who won the 2018 US Open and 2019 Australian Open, maintained her record of winning every Grand Slam final she has played in.
“I don’t want to play you in any more finals, I didn’t really enjoy that, it was a really tough match for me,” Osaka jokingly told Azarenka.
“It was really inspiring for me because I used to watch you play here when I was younger. I learned a lot, so thank you.”
BBC
Two-times Grand Slam champion Naomi Osaka reached the U.S. Open final for the second time in her career with a thrilling 7-6(1) 3-6 6-3 victory over American hope Jennifer Brady on Thursday.
Brady arrived at her first Grand Slam semi-final without having dropped a set in New York and did not show any nerves.
But Osaka’s firepower allowed her to get by the 28th seed.
Fourth seed Osaka, who won the first of two consecutive Grand Slam titles two years ago in New York, fired 35 winners.
She had 17 unforced errors as steady rain pounded on the roof of an otherwise quiet Arthur Ashe Stadium.
Osaka will play either third seed Serena Williams or former world number one Victoria Azarenka of Belarus in the final.
“I really love the atmosphere even though there’s sadly no people here,” said Osaka. “This court really suits me well.”
Osaka set the tone early when she served out to love to open the match.
But she soon learned she had a battle on her hands as a composed Brady came out swinging in a contest that featured just six break-point opportunities.
Japanese world number nine Osaka turned aside a break-point while serving at 3-3 in the first stanza, held at love to get ahead 5-4 and then ran away in the tiebreak.
It helped her to close out a set in which she made just four unforced errors.
Brady, however, was not rattled and dropped only four points through her first four service games of the second set.
She then secured the first break of the match for a 5-3 lead which she would consolidate to force a decider.
From there it was all Osaka, who built on an early break to lead 4-1 before going on to seal the match.
Brady, whose previous best Grand Slam performances came in 2017 when she reached the fourth round in Melbourne and New York, had no resistance left thereafter.
Osaka’s victory sends her back to the Flushing Meadows final, where in 2018 she beat Williams.
It was a match that saw the American become involved in a series of confrontations with the chair umpire.
German fifth seed Alexander Zverev fought back from a set down to reach his first US Open semi-final by beating a battling Borna Coric.
Zverev, 23, crumbled in the first set as the Croatian 27th seed threatened his hopes of a first Grand Slam title.
“I started playing a bit more aggressively,” Zverev said.
“The way I was playing was not the level for a Grand Slam quarter-final. I don’t want to stop here.”
Zverev will play Spanish 20th seed Pablo Carreno Busta after he beat Canadian 12th seed Denis Shapovalov 3-6 7-6 (7-5) 7-6 (7-4) 0-6 6-3 in a match that lasted more than four hours.
Carreno Busta, 29, who also reached the last four in 2017, said: “I am destroyed, but I am very happy. After this fight it’s tough to say but it’s incredible to be in the semi-final again.”
BBC
Teenager Coco Gauff is out of the US Open, losing in the first round to 31st seed Latvian Anastasija Sevastova.
Coco lost 3-6 7-5 4-6.
But she ultimately fell to the more composed player, who is ranked 45th in the WTA.
Coco is 51st.
This was the first time Coco will be thrown out of Grand Slam at the first rund.
In her three previous Grand Slam appearances, she reached at least the third.
Patrick Mouratoglou, the coach whose attempts to guide Serena Williams mid-match during this year’s U.S. Open final, has called for on-court coaching to be permitted.
His attempts led to the player’s explosive row with the umpire and a code violation en route to defeat.
But Mouratoglou has now admitted gesturing to Williams from the stands during her match with Japan’s Naomi Osaka.
It was in contravention of U.S. Open and other Grand Slam tournament rules, even though the American player was left incensed at the umpire’s strict interpretation of the rule.
She said she had not seen Mouratoglou’s signal and that she had “never cheated in her life”.
The incident and the ensuing row resulted in a game penalty and a 17,000 dollars fine for Williams, and divided tennis by triggering a debate about sexism in the sport.
The debate was fuelled by Williams’s and others assertions that an umpire would not have dealt with a male player in the same way.
Coaching during matches is permitted in some women’s events, but Grand Slam tournaments are among those which do not allow it.
The U.S. Open permitted players to talk to their coaches during qualifying and junior matches.
However, any move to allow it during main draw matches would need to be unilateral among the four slams.
This is likely to be problematic, with Wimbledon so far entirely against it, although Wimbledon chief Philip Brook told reporters recently it was time for a “grown-up conversation” about the issue.
Mouratoglou clearly thinks it is a good idea and on Thursday said mid-match coaching needed to be authorised in order to “ensure tennis sustains its development”.
The Frenchman said it was time coaching was both recognised and valued, because the fallout following last month’s U.S. Open final made it look as though coaching was shameful.
“Authorising coaching in competition and actually staging it so that the viewers can enjoy it as a show would ensure it remains pivotal in the sport,” he posted on his Twitter feed.
Mouratoglou said he could not understand why tennis was “just about the only sport” where coaching was not allowed, citing football, basketball and boxing as high-profile examples.
He also pointed out that elite cyclists are in radio contact with their advisors during races.
Touching on a theme raised by the Williams episode, Mouratoglou said legitimising in-competition coaching would end hypocrisy.
“It is a very basic truth that the vast majority of tennis coaches are actually coaching on court, in spite of the rule,” he said.
“Of course, coaches are usually discreet… Occasionally the players are punished for it, but for the most part they are not.”
Representatives of the four Grand Slam tournaments are expected to meet before the end of the year, at which point the future of mid-match coaching will be a topic of conversation.
Reuters/NAN
Serena Williams and sister Venus won their US Open second-round matches to set up a 30th career meeting.
Six-time champion Serena, 36, beat German world 101 Carina Witthoft 6-2 6-2, while twice champion Venus saw off Italy’s Camila Giorgi 6-4 7-5.
The last time the Americans played each other at a Grand Slam was in the final of the 2017 Australian Open, which Serena won when eight weeks pregnant.
“We’d rather have met later,” 17th seed Serena said.
Serena missed the US Open last year, giving birth to daughter Olympia shortly after the tournament started. She reached the Wimbledon final in July.
Chasing a record-equalling 24th Grand Slam singles title, Serena unleashed 30 winners and 13 aces on her way to victory over Witthoft and sealed victory when the German netted a forehand.
While Serena wrapped up her win in one hour seven minutes, it took Venus an extra 45 minutes to beat Giorgi.
“Obviously, it’s early in the tournament, so both of us are going to be looking forward to continuing to play better,” 16th seed Venus said.
Meanwhile, defending champion Sloane Stephens fought back from a set down to beat world number 134 Anhelina Kalinina 4-6 7-5 6-2 in two hours and 46 minutes.
Having lost an enduring opening set in an hour and two minutes, American third seed Stephens broke three times in the second set only to be pegged back to 5-5 by Kalinina after receiving treatment for blisters on her hand.
The 25-year-old eventually closed out the set and, despite going a break down in the first game of the decider, proved too strong for the 21-year-old Ukrainian, who was playing in the main draw of a Grand Slam for the first time.
Stephens, who said she had “two bites of sushi and a slushy” during the 10-minute heat break before the final set, bemoaned the conditions on Arthur Ashe Stadium.
“It was super hot,” she added. “I was sweating a lot and it was not ideal conditions, but I am happy to get through.
“I hope that I play a little bit better than today [in the next round], go out and compete hard.”
She faces Belarus’ Victoria Azarenkanext, after the former world number one beat Daria Gavrilova 6-1 6-2.
Ukrainian seventh seed Elina Svitolina also progressed with a 6-2 6-3 win over Germany’s Tatjana Maria.
The 21-year-old will play Qiang Wang in the third round after the Chinese beat Romania’s Irina-Camelia Begu 6-3 6-1.
And eighth seed Karolina Pliskova recorded a 6-2 6-2 win over Romania’s Ana Bogdan. The Czech player will face Greek Maria Sakkari, seeded 32, or American Sofia Kenin in the third round.
BBC
Five-time champion Roger Federer breezed into the US Open second round with a routine victory over Japan’s Yoshihito Nishioka at Flushing Meadows.
Federer, 37, needed one hour and 52 minutes to win 6-2 6-2 6-4 in the night session on Arthur Ashe Stadium.
The Swiss great hit 56 winners compared to just 17 from his 177th-ranked opponent.
The 20-time Grand Slam winner will play France’s Benoit Paire in the second round in New York.
“I’m very happy with how I played tonight. It is particularly tough for us Europeans because we don’t get this type of humidity. You are sweating so much you don’t know what has hit you,” Federer said.
“It is tough so you are happy when you survive a day like this.”
BBC