new york: Novak Djokovic was cruising along with a big early lead in his U.S. Open fourth-round match on Sunday night when his neck started bothering him. That didn’t stop Djokovic from dominating 144th-ranked qualifier Jan-Lennard Struff 6-3 6-3 6-2 to reach his record 64th Grand Slam quarterfinal.
“What gives me a lot of encouragement right now, and positivity, is the way I played tonight,” Djokovic said. “Best performance of the tournament so far. Hopefully I can keep that going.”
Djokovic was ahead 4-0, 15-love when he hit a nicely angled volley winner to go up 30-love in that game. The 24-time Grand Slam champion immediately grabbed at the back of his neck and started turning his head.
The 38-year-old Djokovic kept trying to stretch his neck or flex his right shoulder between points, and he went on to drop that game and the next one, too. But he soon regained the upper hand against Struff, who beat Frances Tiafoe in the previous round and was trying to get to a major quarterfinal for the first time.scoresheet.
Meanwhile, Carlos Alcaraz hit a behind-the-back shot at to win a point in a 7-6(3) 6-3 6-4 victory over Arthur Rinderknech on Sunday that made the Spaniard the youngest man in the Open era to reach 13 Grand Slam quarterfinals. “Sometimes, I practice it. I’m not going to lie,” the No. 2-seeded Alcaraz said about the bit of wizardry he delivered in the first set. “But I mean, I don’t practice it, like, too many times. Just in practice, if the opportunity is there, I will try. In the match, it’s kind of the same. If I have the opportunity, why not?” At 22 years and 3 months old, Alcaraz is about 6 months younger than Boris Becker was when he got to Major quarterfinal No. 13.
Aryna Sabalenka returned to the quarterfinals with a 6-1 6-4 win over Cristina Bucsa. Marketa Vondrousova beat Elena Rybakina 6-4
5-7 6-2. agencies