No. 5 seed Petra Kvitova moved into the fourth round of the US Open with a 6-2, 6-1 win against 32nd-seeded Anna Karolina Schmiedlova of Slovakia.
It will be Kvitova’s third appearance in the fourth round at Flushing Meadows. The two-time Wimbledon champion also accomplished the feat in 2009 and 2012, but she has never made it to the semifinals in the last Grand Slam of the year.
Kvitova never presented Schmiedlova with a break opportunity in the 66-minute match. The Czech star converted five of her nine break chances.
British qualifier Johanna Konta beat No. 18 seed Andrea Petkovic of Germany 7-6 (2), 6-3 to reach the fourth round of a Grand Slam for the first time.
Petkovic appeared bothered by the heat during the second set. Trailing Konta 0-3, she had the trainer on court taking her blood pressure and pulse.
The 97th-ranked Konta needed six match points to finish the victory in 1 hour, 56 minutes.
Konta failed to take advantage of three match points in the 18-point seventh game, allowing Petkovic to break her serve.
Two games later, Konta secured the win when Petkovic sailed a forehand long.
Rafa exits early
Rafael Nadal made his earliest US Open exit in a decade, suffering his first Grand Slam defeat after leading by two sets, while Serena Williams rallied to keep her calendar Slam dream alive.
Spanish eighth seed Nadal, whose 14 Slam titles include the 2010 and 2013 US Open crowns, fell victim to 32nd-seeded Italian Fabio Fognini 3-6, 4-6, 6-4, 6-3, 6-4 at Arthur Ashe Stadium on Friday.
Nadal had not lost so early on the New York hardcourts since a third-round ouster in 2005 by American James Blake. The 29-year-old left-hander had been 151-0 in Slam matches when leading by two sets.
“He played great,” Nadal said. “It’s not that I lost. He wins. I’m not happy but I accept he was better. I didn’t play bad. I fight until the last point. It was not enough.”
Fognini imposed seven consecutive service breaks upon Nadal in the fourth and fifth sets, smacking 70 winners past the iconic star in a fantastic effort.
“I can’t describe how happy I am,” Fognini said. “It was very tough. To do it against Rafa, two sets down. It was an incredible match.”
Thus Fognini, 32, booked a last-16 date with 18th-seeded Spaniard Feliciano lopez, who eliminated Canadian 10th seed Milos Raonic 6-2, 7-6 (7/4), 6-3.
Nadal lost to Fognini on clay at Rio de Janeiro and Barcelona earlier this year, but had bounced back with a triumph in July’s Hamburg final.
It was Fognini’s first win in 18 tries on hardcourt against a top-10 rival and made him the first Italian in the US Open last 16 since Davide Sanguinetti in 2005.
Top-ranked Novak Djokovic moved a step closer to his 10th career Slam crown and third of the year by defeating Italy’s Andreas Seppi 6-3, 7-5, 7-5.
Djokovic took his 31st win in a row over Italian foes, his 11th from Seppi, since losing to Filippo Volandri in his ATP debut at Umag in 2004.
“It was a tough three sets,” Djokovic said. “Just hanging in there. Be patient for your opportunities. You try to cash in when they come.”
Next up is Spanish 23rd seed Roberto Bautista Agut, who advanced when 14th-seeded Belgian David Goffin retired while leading 6-2, 7-5, 3-6, 1-3. A Grand Slam record 13 men have retired from matches at this tournament.
Croatian ninth seed Marin Cilic barely escaped making the earliest exit of any defending champion since Andre Agassi in 1999 before outlasting 56th-ranked Kazak Mikhail Kukushkin 6-7 (5/7), 7-6 (7/1), 6-3, 6-7 (3/7), 6-1.
“It wasn’t easy but I stayed together and got it done,” Cilic said. Cilic next meets French 27th seed Jeremy Chardy, who ousted Spanish seventh seed David Ferrer 7-6 (8/6) 4-6, 6-3, 6-1.
Venus Williams, 35, eased sister Serena’s path to the final by ousting the top-rated rival on their side of the draw, defeating 12th-seeded Swiss teen Belinda Bencic 6-3, 6-4.
Bencic, 18, inflicted the most recent defeat upon Serena last month in a Toronto semi-final, but fell to 0-4 against Venus, who fired 31 winners against 15 unforced errors.
“I just wanted to be aggressive,” Venus said. “Keeping the errors down really helped me close out the match.”
Venus, seeded 23rd, reached a fourth-round match against Anett Kontaveit and could face Serena after that.
Security on the agenda
A drone crash during a US Open match has tennis officials thinking about whether they can do more to safeguard the sprawling National Tennis Center from such hazards, a spokesman said Friday.
“Obviously, it’s something we are looking at” after an unmanned aircraft plummeted into empty seats and caused a scare during a women’s singles match Thursday night, U.S. Tennis Association spokesman Chris Widmaier said.
A high school science teacher who had been flying the drone from a park outside the tennis venue was arrested Friday on reckless endangerment and other charges, police said.
While drones have come too close for comfort to other sporting events, Widmaier said they hadn’t been an issue before at the Open, which bans patrons and broadcasters from using them.