Serena Continues Her Historic Run Sunday in Flushing Meadows
Day Seven of the 2015 U.S. Open features the top seeds on both the men’s and women’s side of the draw looking to advance to the quarterfinals as the Round of 16 begins.
An all-American matchup in the late afternoon at Arthur Ashe Stadium will feature the top-seeded Serena Williams taking on Madison Keys. The two have met only once in their careers, a match won by Serena earlier this year at the Aussie Open.
Including her third round victory on Friday, Serena is on a 31-match winning streak at Grand Slam level events, having won the 2014 U.S. Open, 2015 Australian Open, 2015 French Open and 2015 Wimbledon.
“I think that she played a really high-intensity match,” said Serena of her prior matchup with Keys. “I thought she served really well; I served well. So hopefully, I'll be able to show up and play well. We'll see.
Preceding Serena, older sister Venus Williams, the oldest player in the 2015 U.S. Open draw at 35, faces Estonian Anett Kontaveit.
Venus is through to second week of the U.S. Open for first time since 2010, when she advanced to the semifinals where she lost to Kim Clijsters. Venus now reached at least the Round of 16 at three of the four Slams in 2015.
Wins by both Serena and Venus will pit the two against one another in the quarterfinals.
The Round of 16 in the top half of the Men’s Singles draw on Sunday will be headlined by the top seeded Novak Djokovic and the defending U.S. Open champion, Croatia’s Marin Cilic. Djokovic and Cilic are the only Top 10 seeds left after three (number seven David Ferrer, number eight Rafael Nadal and number 10 Milos Raonic) were eliminated on Friday.
Under the lights on Ashe, Djokovic takes a 2-0 record against the number 23 seed Roberto Bautista Agut. Djokovic is trying to reach his ninth straight U.S. Open quarterfinals and 26th overall in a Grand Slam tournament, which is third-most in the Open Era (Federer 36, Connors 27). Djokovic has not dropped a set thus far at the Open, and he’s held serve 39 of 41 games.
Agut is back in the Round of 16 here for the second straight year and he’s trying to reach his first career major quarterfinal. Bautista Agut is also attempting to snap a 13-match losing streak against top 10 opponents (3-19 overall).
Djokovic is 2-0 lifetime against Agut, both meetings taking place in Dubai (2013 and 2014).
In the opening match on Arthur Ashe Stadium, Cilic brings a 10-match U.S. Open winning streak against Chardy, who is coming off his first Top 10 win of the season (1-8) over Ferrer. Cilic is coming off a five-set marathon win over Mikhail Kukushkin and he’s trying to reach his fourth career quarterfinal at the U.S. Open.
Chardy is attempting to advance to his second Grand Slam tournament quarterfinal.
Chardy is one of three Frenchman through to the Round of 16, as fellow countrymen Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Benoit Paire square off. Tsonga looks to maintain his perfect record (2-0) against Paire. The 30-year-old Frenchman has played nearly flawless tennis so far, holding all 41 service games. He is trying to reach the quarterfinals in Flushing Meadows for the first time since 2011. Tsonga has played well against his countrymen in majors, compiling an 11-1 record. Paire, who saved two match points in his first round five-set win over last year’s runner-up Kei Nishikori, is playing in the Round of 16 in a major for the first time. The 26-year-old has climbed from 149th on Feb. 2 to 41st coming in.
In July, he captured his first career ATP World Tour title in Bastad.
Click here for the full Day Seven schedule for the 2015 U.S. Open.
