Nick advances to quarters beating defending champion & World No.1

NEW YORK: Nick Kyrgios crushed World No.1 Daniil Medvedev’s dream of a title defense at the US Open on Sunday with a 7-6(11), 3-6, 6-3, 6-2 victory to reach the quarter-finals, ensuring there will be a new top-ranked player when the tournament concludes.

In a meeting worthy of a Broadway show between two of the sport’s biggest servers and most combustible personalities, the fiery Australian was better in the match’s biggest moments, showing off a renewed focus and fitness.

“It was an amazing match,” Kyrgios said in an on-court interview before a sold-out crowd at the Arthur Ashe Stadium. “Daniil is the defending champion, so there is a lot of pressure on his shoulders, but I played really well. I have been playing amazing the last couple months and what a place to do it, packed house in New York.”

Kyrgios delights in shunning the norms of tennis and did so again in a bizarre moment early in the third set when he ran around the net to hit a ball that Medvedev had sent high in the air. The play cost Kyrgios the point but seemingly raised his spirits as he would break for 3-1 and take the set with a perfectly executed drop shot.

In the fourth set, Kyrgios again broke early for a 2-1 lead that he would not relinquish and Medvedev began to crumble from there, hitting balls against the back wall in frustration as the match grew further out of reach.

Gauff reaches quarter-finals for 1st time

Coco Gauff raised a fist, then wagged her right index finger, responding to, and riling up even more, a loud-louder-loudest Arthur Ashe Stadium crowd that was standing and screaming.

Gauff’s opponent, Zhang Shuai, covered both ears with her hands to shield them from what she described later as a “Boom!” of sound. Gauff and her fans were reacting excitedly to quite a point, one in which the 18-year-old raced to her right for a defensive forehand, then changed directions to sprint and slide into a backhand that drew a netted volley from Zhang.

Just four points later, Gauff was a quarter-finalist at Flushing Meadows for the first time. Gauff, the French Open runner-up in June, came back in each set to beat China’s Zhang 7-5, 7-5 and become the youngest American to make it this far at the US Open since Melanie Oudin was 17 in 2009.

“Here, I cannot hear myself scream. Makes me want to do it more. I think I am feeding off the momentum a lot. I enjoy it,” said No.12 Gauff, who will meet No. 17 Caroline Garcia of France on Tuesday.

RESULTS: Fourth round: Men: N Kyrgios bt D Medvedev 7-6(11), 3-6, 6-3, 6-2; K Khachanov bt P Carreno Busta 4-6, 6-3, 6-1, 4-6, 6-3. Women: C Gauff bt S Zhang 7-5, 7-5; C Garcia bt A Riske 6-4, 6-1; A Tomljanovic bt L Samsonova 7-6(8), 6-1; O Jabeur bt V Kudermetova 7-6(1), 6-4