South Africa’s Kevin Anderson reached the fourth round of the US Open with a straight sets win over Croatia’s Borna Coric at Flushing Meadows.
Coric had eliminated the fourth seed Alexander Zverev in the second round. Anderson will play Paolo Lorenzi after the Italian beat compatriot Thomas Fabbiano.
Anderson didn’t always find his best tennis, but urged himself on as he determinedly chipped away at Coric to prevail6-4, 6-3, 6-2. He will look to reach the quarter-finals for the second time in New York when he faces Lorenzi on Sunday.
The 2014 men’s singles champion Marin Cilic suffered a surprise third-round loss to Argentina’s world No 33 Diego Schwartzman.
Fifth seed Cilic lost 4-6, 7-5, 7-5, 6-4 as Schwartzman reached the fourth round of a Grand Slam for the first time. Because of injury, Cilic was playing his first event since losing the Wimbledon final to Roger Federer.
Cilic, 28, who claimed the US Open title in 2014, is the fourth top-10 seed to exit the competition. Alexander Zverev, Grigor Dimitrov and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga all went out in the second round.
That left the bottom half of the draw without any player in the top 14 in the rankings.
Only one man remaining in the bottom half of the draw, 17th-seeded Sam Querrey, has even made a major semi-final before. The other seeded men are 12th-seeded Pablo Carreño Busta, 16th-seeded Lucas Pouille, 23rd-seeded Mischa Zverev, 28th-seeded Anderson and Schwartzman. There is also the qualifier Denis Shapovalov and the unseeded Paolo Lorenzi.
Schwarzman will play 16th seed Lucas Pouille after the Frenchman beat Mikhail Kukushkin of Kazakhstan 2-6, 6-3, 6-4, 6-4.
Spanish 12th seed Pablo Carreno Busta beat Nicolas Mahut of France 6-3, 6-4, 6-3 to reach the fourth round at Flushing Meadows for the first time.
He will play Canadian 18-year-old Denis Shapovalov, who went through when Britain’s Kyle Edmund pulled out due to injury.
In the women’s draw, No 3 seed Garbine Muguruza and two-time champion Venus Williams secured fourth round spots with convincing victories.
Wimbledon champion Muguruza barely broke a sweat on her way to a 6-1, 6-1 victory over 31st seed Slovakian Magdalena Rybarikova.
The 23-year-old Spaniard will next face 13th seed Czech Petra Kvitova.
American two-time US Open champion Venus Williams advanced to the final 16 with a 6-3, 6-4 win.
Meanwhile, her sister Serena, whose partner is Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian, gave birth to a baby girl in Florida. The 23-time Grand Slam winner said last month she was planning to return to tennis for the Australian Open in January.
Photo: Richard Heathcote/Getty Images
