New York: Maria Sharapova was knocked out of the US Open in the fourth round Monday. She lost 4-6, 3-6 to Spanish birthday girl Carla Suarez Navarro who inflicted the Russian’s first ever night-time loss at the tournament.
Sharapova, the 2006 champion who was trying to reach the quarterfinals for the first time since 2012, hit 38 unforced errors and dropped serve six times. Eighteen of Sharapova’s unforced errors came in an untidy first set where she trailed 1-4 and 2-5.
In the second set, she retrieved a break for 1-1 but dropped serve again in the fifth and ninth games with her fate sealed by a wild backhand.
“Maria has played here many times so I knew I needed to be aggressive, focused and play solid,” said the 30th seeded Spaniard after clinching a second win in six meetings with Sharapova. “I told myself to run and fight – that’s the way I can play really good tennis.”
The Spaniard will next play last year’s runner-up Madison Keys for a place in the semifinals. Keys made the last eight with a 6-1, 6-3 win over Dominika Cibulkova.
The other quarterfinal in the bottom part of the draw will see Japan’s Naomi Osaka face Lesia Tsurenko of Ukraine.
Osaka, the 20th seed, made the last eight stage of a Major for the first time by beating Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus 6-3, 2-6, 6-4. Tsurenko also made sure of a maiden quarterfinal at the Slams by seeing off Czech teenager Marketa Vondrousova 6-7(3-7), 7-5, 6-2.
Rohan-Edouard in quarterfinals
New York: Rohan Bopanna kept Indian hopes alive at the US Open tennis tournament as he and his French partner Edouard Roger-Vasselin overcame the all-France combo of Jeremy Chardy and Fabrice Martin 7-6(8-6), 4-6, 6-3 to enter the men’s doubles quarterfinals here, Monday. Chardy and Martin were the more aggressive pair and hit 43 winners to Bopanna and Roger-Vasselin’s 37. However, they also committed 31 unforced errors as against their rivals’ 20.