Reuters
New York, Sept 5: Rafa Nadal ended a sub-par Grand Slam season on a heartbreaking note when he fell 3-6, 4-6, 6-4, 6-3, 6-4 in the third round of the US Open to an inspired Fabio Fognini after winning the first two sets Friday.
Fognini played magnificently from the third set on, picking Nadal apart with groundstroke angles and deft play at the net, where the Italian won 39 of 54 advances.
The final set produced spectacular rallies and winners that had the Arthur Ashe Stadium crowd on their feet as the combatants traded seven service breaks in a row from the third game of the fifth set before Fognini held to end the three hour 46-minute tilt.
The loss ended eighth-seeded Nadal’s record streak of 10 years in a row with at least one Grand Slam singles title after the Spaniard fell in the quarters at the Australian and French Opens, and was ousted in the second round at Wimbledon.
Nadal, played his best tennis of the tournament in the first two sets and looked poised to register a straight sets win after breaking the Italian in the third game and taking a 3-1 lead.
But Fognini broke back in the sixth game and again in the 10th to extend the match.
Fognini, ripping outrageous winners from unexpected angles against the frustrated Spaniard, was down an early break again in the fourth set but broke Nadal in the fourth and eighth games to force a fifth set.
Fognini finished with 70 winners to 30 for Nadal, but the go-for-broke Italian also registered 57 unforced errors, more than triple of Nadal’s 18. The titanic struggle ended with Fognini having won 154 points to 152 for Nadal.
Fognini advanced to a fourth-round match against Spain’s Feliciano Lopez, a 6-2, 7-6, 6-3 upset winner against 10th seeded Milos Raonic of Canada.
Novak Djokovic and defending champion Marin Cilic took different routes into the fourth round.
The Serbian eased to a third round 6-3, 7-5, 7-5 victory over Italian Andreas Seppi.
Cilic also kept his title defence on track but not without a scare as the ninth seed needed over four hours to put away Kazakhstan’s 56th-ranked Mikhail Kukushkin 6-7 (5-7), 7-6 (7-1), 6-3, 6-7 (3-7), 6-1.
Frenchman Jeremy Chardy provided the upset of the day dispatching seventh seeded Spaniard David Ferrer 7-6 (8-6), 4-6, 6-3, 6-1.
Mixed day for Indians
New York: Leander Paes endured mixed fortunes while Sania Mirza lost her mixed doubles match at the US Open here Friday. Fourth seeded mixed doubles duo of Paes and Martina Hingis defeated American pair of Claire Liu Taylor Harry Fritz 6-2, 6-2 to advance to the second round. Second seeded Rohan Bopanna and Chinese Taipei’s Yung-Jan Chan advanced to the second round in the mixed doubles beating Spanish-Swiss pair of Fernando Verdasco and Belinda Bencic 6-4, 6-4. But Sania and Brazilian Bruno Soares, the top seeds, bowed 3-6, 3-6 to Czech Republic’s Andrea Hlavackova and Poland’s Lukasz Kubot. In the men’s doubles category, Paes and Verdasco lost 5-7, 6-4, 3-6 to American duo of Steve Johnson and Sam Querrey.