John Minchillo/Associated Press
The place to be at the 2021 U.S. Open on Sunday was inside Louis Armstrong Stadium.
One of the main showcase courts featured two epic matches that ended in upsets and a dominant performance from the top seeded woman left in the competition.
Dutch qualifier Botic van de Zandschulp kicked off the play on Armstrong with a five-set victory over Diego Schwartzman.
Canadian teenager Leylah Fernandez delivered an equally as stunning win in the match that followed. She battled back from a set down against Angelique Kerber to secure a spot in the quarterfinals.
Aryna Sabalenka was on the court for a much shorter amount of time than Van de Zandschulp and Fernandez. The women’s No. 2 seed controlled both of her sets against Elise Mertens to reinforce her standing as the top player left in the women’s singles draw.
Men’s Singles
No. 2 Daniil Medvedev def. No. 24 Dan Evans, 6-3, 6-4, 6-3
Botic van de Zandschulp def. No. 11 Diego Schwartzman, 6-3, 6-4, 5-7, 5-7, 6-1
Van de Zandschulp and Schwartzman battled for four hours and 20 minutes on the first match inside Armstrong on Sunday.
The Dutchman broke out to a two-set lead over the No. 11 seed before the Argentinian battled back with a pair of 7-5 set victories.
The final momentum shift went in favor of Van de Zandschulp in the fifth set. The Dutch player won two of his four break points and fended off the single break-point opportunity earned by Schwartzman in the final set.
Prior to the U.S. Open, Van de Zandschulp had two main draw victories at Grand Slams on his resume. He won a match each at the French Open and Wimbledon this season.
The Cinderella run to the final eight will likely end in that round since he faces No. 2 seed Daniil Medvedev next.
Medvedev wasted little time getting rid of Dan Evans inside Arthur Ashe Stadium in a straight-set victory that took one hour and 43 seconds.
Medvedev is viewed as the main challenger to spoiling Novak Djokovic’s season-long Grand Slam. His path to the final is wide open with no other top 10 seeds alive in the bottom half of the men’s singles bracket.
Felix Auger-Aliassime is Medvedev’s biggest threat to reach the final. The Canadian plays the men’s singles night match on Ashe against American Frances Tiafoe.
Women’s Singles
No. 2 Aryna Sabalenka def. No. 15 Elise Mertens, 6-4, 6-1
No. 5 Elina Svitolina def. No. 12 Simona Halep, 6-3, 6-3
Leylah Fernandez def. No. 16 Angelique Kerber, 4-6, 7-6 (5), 6-2
Fernandez followed up her upset win over Naomi Osaka on Friday with a three-set triumph over another Grand Slam winner in Kerber.
The 18-year-old Canadian battled with the three-time Grand Slam winner in the first set, but Kerber earned a valuable break to take the early advantage.
Fernandez did not let that loss deter her, as she kept pace with her German opponent throughout the second set.
Fernandez hit 20 winners compared to 11 from Kerber in the second set and she finally took the edge early on in the tiebreak.
The unseeded player carried that momentum into the third set, where she broke Kerber’s serve on two of the three opportunities she earned.
Fernandez finished the match with 45 winners, five break points won and 66 percent of points won on first serve, all of which were better than the numbers from Kerber.
Elina Svitolina is next in Fernandez’s path in New York. The fifth-seeded woman breezed past Simona Halep with a pair of 6-3 set victories to remain perfect at the tournament.
Svitolina is 8-0 in her U.S. Open sets and she has won seven of those by three games or more.
Sabalenka has been equally as dominant over the last three rounds on the hard courts. She played in the dominant role against Elise Mertens for most of the two sets played between the seeded foes.
Sabalenka took total control of the contest in the second set, which she won by five games. Since losing the second set to Nina Stojanovic in the first round, Sabalenka has outscored her opponents 42-15.
With Ash Barty and Osaka out of the tournament, Sabalenka should be the favorite to capture the U.S. Open.
To reach the final, Sabalenka faces a difficult path over the next two rounds. She will face either No. 8 Barbora Krejcikova or No. 9 Garbine Muguruza in the final eight and the winner of Fernandez-Svitolina in the semifinals.
Statistics obtained from USOpen.org.
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