Mattek-Sands Looks to End Serena’s Run
Both world number ones will be in action on Day Five at the U.S. Open on Friday, as Serena Williams and Novak Djokovic both look to advance to the fourth-round.
Any day that Serena Williams plays, she is headlining the field. With history on the line, the 33-year-old American will face off with compatriot Bethanie Mattek-Sands, who is playing some spirited tennis in Flushing, as she dispatched upcoming American Coco Vandeweghe 6-2, 6-1 on Wednesday.
The test will obviously increase in this one as she is playing arguably the greatest ever in Serena. Serena, who was tested a bit herself in the second round against Kiki Bertens, was down a break in the opening set and saw Bertens serving for the set, but responded to take the set in a tie-breaker, going on to win the match 7-6(5), 6-3.
Serena won her previous two meetings with Mattek-Sands.
The winner of the Serena-Mattek-Sands match will meet the winner of another intriguing Friday matchup, as the 19th-seeded American Madison Keys will play 15th-seeded Pole Agnieszka Radwanska.
The Serena match will be the first of the night session on Arthur Ashe Stadium. Before they take the court, the men’s world number one will wrap up the day session on Ashe, as Novak Djokovic will take on 25th-seeded Italian Andreas Seppi, a man he is 10-0 against in his career.
Djokovic has looked unstoppable thus far in Queens. He hasn’t faced a single break point in all 24 of his service games, and converted on 12 of his 20 chances. A win would bump the Serb ahead of Andy Murray for most match wins this season, and he will look to deny Seppi a chance at reaching the U.S. Open fourth round for the first time in his career.
A very intriguing matchup of young versus old will precede the Djokovic-Seppi contest on Ashe, as Rogers Cup champion and Swiss teenager Belinda Bencic will meet the 23rd-seeded and two-time U.S. Open champion Venus Williams. Venus has won all three of the previous meetings between these two, but Bencic is playing the best tennis of her career leading up to this tournament. The 12th seed Bencic came back from a set down in her second-round match and Venus was forced into a third set in her previous match, so it will be interesting to see how both players start this match.
Two Grand Slam finalists from a year ago will take the court as well on Friday, as Slovakia’s Dominika Cibulkova plays 25th-seeded Canadian Eugenie Bouchard. Cibulkova reached the Australian Open final last year, and Bouchard reached the Wimbledon final a year ago, and after shaky 2015’s up to this point, both players find themselves vying for a spot in the U.S. Open fourth round.
The two have never played before and will be second onto Louis Armstrong Stadium. Before them, defending men’s champion Marin Cilic will look to move on against Kazakhstan’s Mikhail Kukushkin.
Tenth-seeded Canadian Milos Raonic is seeking to reach the U.S. Open fourth round for the fourth consecutive year when he faces off with 18th seeded Spaniard Feliciano Lopez.
Rafael Nadal will wrap the day’s action up when he does battle with 32nd-seeded Italian Fabio Fognini in the final match on Ashe. The 14-time Grand Slam champion leads the all-time series 5-2 over Fognini, but the Italian has won two of the last three matchups, including in Barcelona earlier this year.
Click here for the full schedule of Day Five’s matches at the 2015 U.S. Open.
