It was a highly successful day for the Americans as all the three of the six remaining home favourites progressed to the quarter finals on Sunday. The lone American in the men’s section of the draw, Wimbledon semi finalist Sam Querrey is now the favourite to contest the final from the injury hit and upset prone bottom half of the draw. The seventeen seeded American was a 6-2,6-2,6-1 winner over 23rd seeded Mischa Zverev of Germany in a mere one hour and seventeen minutes in the final match of the day in the evening session on Arthur Ashe stadium.

Querrey has been joined by the 28th seeded South African Kevin Anderson, the 12th seeded Spaniard Paolo Carreno Busta and the 29th seeded Diego Schwartzman of Argentina. The California native Querrey hit 18 aces and never faced a break point against the left handed Zverev, the elder sibling of the fourth seeded Alexander Zverev who was beaten in the second round. Querrey broke serve six times, twice in each set and was six for twelve on break point chances. He hit 55 winners and had only 8 unforced errors.

He next faces the South African, Kevin Anderson who plays a similar brand of tennis as Querrey’s. The experienced South African Kevin Anderson beat 35 year old Italian Paolo Lorenzi in two hours and fifty seven minutes on Louis Armstrong stadium with a 6-4,6-3,6-7(4),6-4 win. Anderson had 18 aces and 54 winners and despite 48 unforced errors carried far too many weapons for Lorenzi.

The other winner on the men’s side, for the day, was the Spaniard Pablo Carreno Busta who won three tie breaks against the 18 year old Denis Shapovalov of Canada in the first match of the day on Arthur Ashe stadium. He took an identical 58 minutes to wrap up each set in his 7-6(2),7-6(4),7-6(3) win. Each player broke serve thrice in the match but the consistent Spaniard was too strong when it mattered in the tie-breaks against the flamboyant Canadian. Busta won 128 points in the match to Shapovalov’s tally of 124 as there was very little separating the duo in the match.

That sets up a clash against the Argentine Diego Schwartzman who beat the last remaining Frenchman in the draw Lucas Pouille, seeded sixteen. The five feet seven inch tall Schwartzman beat the sixteenth seeded Pouille, a quarter finalist last year, in two hours and thirty five minutes on grandstand court as he prevailed 7-6(3),7-5,2-6,6-2.

The following is the list of matches in the top half of the men’s section of the draw with my pick mentioned first :-

Roger Federer (3) v. Phillip Kohlschreiber (33)
Juan Martin Del Potro (24) v. Dominic Thiem (6)
Rafael Nadal (1) v. Alexandr Dolgopolov (-)
David Goffin (9) v. Alexander Rublev (-)

In the women’s section of the draw, the two Americans in action on Day Seven; five time champion Venus Williams and Sloane Stephens were both victorious taking three sets each to advance. The ninth seeded Venus, won against the Spaniard Carla Suarez Navarro 6-3,3-6,6-1 in one hour and fifty minutes on Arthur Ashe stadium, while Stephens beat the thirtieth seeded Julia Goerges of Germany with the same scoreline in one hour and forty one minutes.

There was disappointment for the crowd favourite Maria Sharapova, as the Russian wild card entry lost to the 16th seeded Latvian Anastasija Sevastova 5-7,6-4,6-2. Sharapova playing in her first grand slam since losing the Quarterfinal of the Australian Open to Serena Williams in January 2016 had caused the biggest upset of the tournament so far as she beat the second seeded Simona Halep of Romania in the first round.

The former two time Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova who was sidelined after a stabbing incident at her home at the end of last year which sidelined her for the better part of the first half of the year, upset the third seeded reigning Wimbledon champion Garbine Muguruza of Spain as she overcame a slow start to win 7-6(3), 6-3 on Arthur Ashe stadium. The first match of the evening session lasted an hour and forty six minutes.

The following is the list of matches to be played in the top half of the women’s draw on Monday with my pick mentioned first :-

Karolina Pliskova (1) v. Jennifer Brady (-)
Coco Vandeweghe (20) v. Lucie Safarova (-)
Elina Svitolina (4) v. Madison Keys (15)
Daria Kasatkina (-) v. Kaia Kanepi (-)

– Rasesh Mehta [Rasesh Mehta is an analyst with the Tennis Galaxy. You can reach him at the email: sportzcosmos@gmail.com]