US OPEN TENNIS

Bencic shocks Osaka

Ag AFP

NEW YORK: Top-ranked defending champion Naomi Osaka was ousted from the US Open on Monday by Belinda Bencic while Croatian Donna Vekic erased a match point to join the Swiss 13th seed in a quarter-final matchup.

Bencic’s 7-5, 6-4 triumph, her WTA-best sixth over a top-five foe this year, ensured 21-year-old Japanese star Osaka will fall from atop the rankings next week and won’t become the first repeat US Open winner since Serena Williams in 2014.

Bencic, 22, matched her deepest career Grand Slam run from the 2014 US Open with her third victory of the year over Osaka, having also won at Indian Wells and Madrid.

Australia’s Ashleigh Barty, the reigning French Open champion, will move atop the rankings next Monday after the loss by Osaka, who defends her Australian Open title in January.

Osaka’s exit means there will be four different women’s Grand Slam winners in a season for the third consecutive year, a first in the Open era.

Vekic, the 23rd seed, saved a match point in the second set and made her first Slam quarter-final by rallying past German 26th seed Julia Goerges 6-7 (5/7), 7-5, 6-3.

Bencic owns a 2-1 career edge over Vekic from two 2014 wins but Vekic won the most recent meeting with her friend and frequent practice partner in this year’s French Open third round. Belgian 25th seed Elise Mertens cruised past 141st ranked US wildcard Kristie Ahn 6-1, 6-1 in 67 minutes to book a quarter-final berth against 19-year-old Canadian 15th seed Bianca Andreescu.

The only deeper Slam run for Mertens was into last year’s Australian Open semi-finals while Andreescu, whom the Belgian has never faced, extended her career-best Slam performance by defeating 116th-ranked US qualifier Taylor Townsend 6-1, 4-6, 6-2.

Andreescu, a champion this year at Indian Wells and Toronto who could crack the world top 10 next week, improved to 6-0 this year against left-handers.

Andreescu breezed through the first set in 31 minutes, but double faulted to surrender the second set. She broke Townsend to open the third set and again for a 4-1 edge on the way to victory.

It’s the first time all eight US Open quarter-finalists have been seeds since 2012 and a first at any Slam since the 2014 Australian Open.

Osaka took a pain-killer to ease nagging knee issues but nothing could help her overcome Bencic.

Osaka struggled from the start on the same Arthur Ashe Stadium court where she consoled tearful US teen Coco Gauff just two days earlier.

Bencic hit a backhand down-the-line winner to break for a 6-5 lead then held on a service winner to capture the first set.

Osaka, who had 21 unforced errors, double faulted away a second-set break to hand Vekic a 3-2 lead while the Swiss never faced a break point.

Goerges won the tie-breaker with consecutive forehand winners, then broke Vekic to open the second set.

But the German was broken serving for the match, squandering a match point in the 10th game, and Vekic broke again when Goerges hit a forehand wide to force a third set, which she dominated.