A HUGE Saturday of US Open women’s action saw upsets aplenty as the third round was completed, creating some intriguing matches to come.

The biggest upset of the day was arguably the three set epic between number one seed Ash Barty and American Shelby Rogers, who built off a huge home crowd to claim a come from behind victory. While Rogers took out the first set with relative ease, Barty fought back to well and truly steal momentum away in the second and looked the goods leading 5-2 in the third before the crowd rallied behind Rogers to steal away a huge 6-1 1-6 7-6(5) result.

“I think tonight going on the court I told myself I didn’t want to lose the same way I lost the last five times against her,” Rogers said. “I just tried to do things a little bit differently. In the first set I mixed in some high balls, I was super patient with her slice because she’s not going to miss one very often. I know that very well.”

“In the second and third, she definitely raised her level, as she does,” Rogers said. “I mean, she’s the No.1 player in the world for a reason. But I started wanting to hit the ball a little bit harder, find some winners if I could. That’s the tennis I like to play. That’s what she wants me to do. She wants to redirect and finesse me around the court, wait for me to miss.”

While Barty fired off 37 winners, she was undone by her 39 unforced errors and, especially late in the clash, struggled on serve with faults forcing her to rely on her second serve. Rogers also hit less winners than unforced errors, but the real difference came with just 20 unforced errors in comparison as she built throughout the clash.

“I think there are a few things tonight I’m happy to accept,” Barty said. “There are some things I’m disappointed in, without a doubt. In the end, I just didn’t quite have enough in the tank. I’ve left everything out on the court this year. It was no different tonight. I just didn’t quite have enough to get over the line, which is disappointing but we move on. I sleep well tonight knowing I gave everything I could; it just wasn’t quite enough.”

The other big oust of the day saw Emma Raducanu join the drove of 18-year-olds entering the second week, as the British teen disposed of in-form Spaniard Sara Sorribes Tormo in just one hour and 10 minutes, 6-0 6-1. Raducanu fired 23 winners and won 79 per cent of her first serve points throughout, efficiently and effectively navigating her way to victory and only dropping the single game 6-0 5-0 up in the second.

“I knew that Sara was an extremely difficult opponent, she’s going to make a lot of balls and not make many mistakes at all,” Raducanu said. “I knew I had to hit through her. I had to work so hard for every single point. Despite the score, there were a lot of deuce games that could have gone either way. I’m just really, really happy to be able to come through that.”

“Honestly, I think with the amount of matches I have played and the experience that I have accumulated in the last four, five weeks, my game is just getting better with each match.”

Meanwhile, the day’s six remaining seeds had little issue, with only seventh seeded Pole Iga Swiatek facing a third set to make it to the fourth round as 17th seed Maria Sakkari upset 10th seeded Czech Petra Kvitova. Swiatek required two hours and 17 minutes to claim a win over Estonian Anett Kontaveit, as the 28th seed pulled back the second set to take some control before the 20-year-old commanded the 6-3 4-6 6-3 win. She earned her first fourth round berth at the US Open in the process, something that the Pole says shows she is on the right path.

“That’s my first time in the fourth round of US Open, I’m pretty proud of that,” Swiatek said post-match. “We did a great job. Being in fourth round of all the Grand Slams this year, it shows that really I am going the right path.

“The match was exciting, was kind of stressful, really physical, because we had games when we had so many ad [points], so long, that I could feel that I’m getting more and more tired. But I knew that I’m well-prepared. I’m pretty happy actually I could for the first time show the tennis that I was playing on practices, that I was working on.”

“I’m trying to solve problems,” Swiatek added. “Sometimes like during a match against Fiona Ferro, when all the emotions come in, it’s pretty hard to see everything clearly. I’m glad that today I was in a different mindset and my head was more clear because I could actually solve problems. I think that was the reason I won that match.”

Sakkari, on the other hand, levelled her head-to-head with Kvitova to three-all with a 6-4 6-3 victory, and turned the tides following two recent losses to the Czech lefty. Sakkari only made 16 unforced errors to Kvitova’s 34, winning 89 per cent of her first serve points and backing up well on her second where required winning 83 per cent. Sakkari will take on 2019 US Open champion Bianca Andreescu in the fourth round, after the Canadian came away with an excellent 6-1 6-2 victory over Belgian Greet Minnen. Andreescu made short work of Minnen, continuing her run on the New York hard courts, which she has technically never faced a main draw US Open loss on after withdrawing from the 2020 event. Andreescu only leaked 11 unforced errors, controlling proceedings throughout to clinch the win in just 67 minutes. The 21-year-old said she is looking forward to a huge clash with Sakkari.

“She’s very powerful,” Andreescu said. “She serves very well. She moves well. She’s a fighter. But I’m also all those things, so it’s going to be good. I’m pumped.”

Fourth seed Karolina Pliskova and 11th seed Belinda Bencic joined the winners list with respective 71 and 74-minute victories, as the in-form Czech in Pliskova disposed of another Australian in Ajla Tomljanovic, and Swiss talent Bencic sped past 23rd seeded American, Jessica Pegula. 14th seed Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova overcame compatriot Varvara Grachevain straight sets to complete the day’s results.

US OPEN ROUND OF 32 RESULTS: 

Shelby Rogers (USA) defeated [1] Ash Barty (AUS) 6-2 1-6 7-6
[4] Karolina Pliskova (CZE) defeated Ajla Tomljanovic (AUS) 6-3 6-2
[6] Bianca Andreescu (CAN) defeated Greet Minnen (BEL) 6-1 6-2
[7] Iga Swiatek (POL) defeated [28] Anett Kontaveit (EST) 6-3 4-6 6-3
[17] Maria Sakkari (GRE) defeated [10] Petra Kvitova (CZE) 6-4 6-3
[11] Belinda Bencic (SUI) defeated [23] Jessica Pegula (USA) 6-2 6-4
[14] Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova (RUS)defeated Varvara Gracheva (RUS) 6-1 6-4
Emma Raducanu (GBR) defeated Sara Sorribes Tormo (ESP) 6-0 6-1

Picture credit: Pete Staples/USTA