Argentine’s Diego Schwartzman, seeded 29th in the tournament, recorded the days biggest upset as he ousted fifth seed and Wimbledon runner-up Marin Cilic of Croatia, 4-6, 7-5, 7-5, 6-4, on Friday to reach the fourth round of the US Open. The win, Schwartzman’s second win over a Top 10 player, moved him into the second week of a major tournament for the first time. Last year, Schwartzman lost in the first round of all four majors. Cilic, for his part, committed 80 unforced errors, allowing Schwartzman to take the biggest win of his career so far.
This was Cilic’s first tournament since he was sidelined with an adductor injury after finishing as runner-up to Roger Federer at Wimbledon in July. Schwartzman, ranked No. 33 in the world, will next face 16th seed Lucas Pouille, a 2-6, 6-3, 6-4, 6-4 winner over Russia's Mikhail Kukushkin.
Sam Querrey last American standing
Sam Querrey hit 49 winners, including 19 aces, booked a spot in the fourth round via a hard-earned 4-6, 6-2, 6-4, 6-4 triumph over Radu Albot in two hours and seven minutes. Querrey became the last American man standing in the tournament after No. 10 John Isner lost to Mischa Zverev, 6-4, 6-3, 7-6(5), in the nightcap. Zverev’s win spoiled an all-American fourth round clash between Querrey and Isner, who failed to overcome 34 winners from his German opponent.
In other matches, No. 12 Pablo Carreno Busta beat Nicolas Mahut in three sets; No. 28 seed Kevin Anderson downed Borna Coric, 6-4, 6-3, 6-2; while Paolo Lorenzi beat Thomas Fabbiano, also in three sets.
Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer headline Saturday’s action
On Saturday, five-time US Open champion Roger Federer will play 31st Feliciano Lopez.
The Swiss tennis legend has a career 12-0 mark against Lopez, who reached the quarterfinals here in 2015. In the first two rounds, Federer played two five-set matches to reach the third round for the 17th time. Rafael Nadal, for his part, will face lucky loser Leonardo Mayer, who took the place of Milos Raonic in the main draw.
Nadal is 3-0 against Mayer, the first lucky loser to reach the third round. Mayer has a 1-24 career record against top 10 opponents. Meanwhile, No. 30 seed Adrian Mannarino clashes with Dominic Thiem, who has won all five previous meetings against the Frenchman. In other matches, David Goffin will face No. 18 seed Gael Monfils, unseeded Viktor Troicki clashes with Alexandr Dolgopolov, Damir Dzumhur collides with Andrey Rublev while No. 33 seed Philipp Kohlschreiber faces John Millman.