Ekaterina Makarova, a US Open semifinalist last year, was trying to serve out her third-round match on Friday when her leg suddenly started cramping.
With double match point at 6-5 in the second set, the 13th-seeded Russian double-faulted then hit a forehand well long. She headed toward her chair and called for a trainer, who came out of the stands to remind Makarova that players can receive treatment for cramping only during changeovers.
She then badly mis-hit another forehand to give 17th-seeded Elina Svitolina break point. But Makarova settled down to win the next three points and pull out the 6-3, 7-5 victory.
Makarova, who had her right thigh re-wrapped after the seventh game of the second set, later said in an on-court interview that she had never cramped up like that before.
“I was so scared,” she said.
Makarova next faces 40th-ranked Kristina Mladenovic in a quarter of the draw that is wide open after third-seeded Maria Sharapova’s withdrawal and several upsets. On Friday, Mladenovic ended the run of “lucky loser” Daria Kasatkina, who took Sharapova’s place in the draw, with a 6-2, 6-3 victory. It’s the first time Mladenovic has reached a Grand Slam round of 16.
Roger through Five-time champion Roger Federer strolled into the third round on Thursday as fellow old-timer lleyton Hewitt bid farewell in fighting style.
On a dramatic day which saw a record created for the longest women’s match, and a new Grand Slam high for retirements from the men’s tournament, Andy Murray escaped his earliest exit in 10 years when he came back from two sets down to make the last 32.
World number two Federer, the 17-time Grand Slam champion, needed just 80 minutes to rout Belgium’s Steve Darcis 6-1, 6-2, 6-1.
The 34-year-old Swiss star, who was champion from 2004-2008 and runner-up in 2009, goes on to face German Philipp Kohlschreiber.
Four times, 2014 US Open runner-up, Caroline Wozniacki was one point from winning. Four times, her opponent in the second round this year, 149th-ranked Petra Cetkovska of the Czech Republic, came up with a winner to extend the match.
The fourth-seeded Wozniacki failed to convert any of those chances to close it out and lost 6-4, 5-7, 7-6 (1) to Cetkovska.
Former world number one Hewitt, the champion in 2001, made a dramatic farewell battling from two sets down and having two match points before losing to fellow Australian Bernard Tomic on a rocking Grandstand court.
In his final match in New York, the 34-year-old fell 6-3, 6-2, 3-6, 5-7, 7-5 after three hours and 27 minutes after his 57th career five-set match.
Hewitt will retire after January’s Australian Open.
Britain’s world number 97 Johanna Konta made history when she defeated Wimbledon runner-up Garbine Muguruza in the longest women’s match in US Open history. It beat by seven minutes the previous longest match record set in 2011 when Samantha Stosur defeated Nadia Petrova.