1:25 AM ET NEW YORK — As the No. 2 player in the world was imploding with her second consecutive double fault at the worst time, Leylah Fernandez turned and glared toward her player’s box, where family and even Brooklyn Nets head coach and Canadian basketball legend Steve Nash sat on the edges of their
Tennis
9:49 PM ET Associated Press NEW YORK — Leylah Fernandez‘s first major semifinal, at the US Open just days after her 19th birthday, did not go her way at the start. After she recovered from that to take a lead, No. 2 seed Aryna Sabalenka pushed a match filled with momentum swings to a back-and-forth
7:00 AM ET D’Arcy MaineESPN.com NEW YORK — Leylah Fernandez stood on the court as every person sitting in Arthur Ashe Stadium looked on, enraptured by her every word. The 19-year-old had just won her quarterfinal match at the US Open against No. 5 seed Elina Svitolina, 6-3, 3-6, 7-6 (5), and advanced to her
12:37 AM ET Associated Press NEW YORK — Never fazed, rarely flummoxed, Novak Djokovic is collected in best-of-five-set matches even when falling behind, as he has done repeatedly at this US Open. No opponent, or the prospect of what is at stake, has been too much to handle. Not yet, anyway. And now he is
3:00 PM ET D’Arcy MaineESPN.com NEW YORK — Fifteen minutes after Aryna Sabalenka won her quarterfinal match at the US Open, she was outside of Arthur Ashe Stadium on the practice courts, blasting forehands and finessing her serve. She had just beaten reigning French Open champion Barbora Krejcikova 6-1, 6-4 on Tuesday to reach the
2:09 PM ET ESPN News Services Emma Raducanu became the second teenager to reach the US Open semifinals in two days, upsetting Olympic gold medalist Belinda Bencic 6-3, 6-4. The 18-year-old qualifier from Britain joined Leylah Fernandez of Canada, who earned her semifinal spot Tuesday, a day after her 19th birthday. Raducanu is also the
8:39 AM ET ESPN staff A US Open without Venus and Serena Williams, Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal surely won’t live up to Slam standards for tennis fans, right? Wrong. The upstart teenagers have taken Flushing Meadows by storm on the men’s and women’s sides, advancing through the brackets and upsetting favorites along the way,
7:02 PM ET Leylah Fernandez‘s dream US Open run continues. Fernandez, who turned 19 on Monday, defeated No. 5 seed Elina Svitolina 6-3, 3-6, 7-6 (5) on Tuesday to advance to the semis in New York. The Canadian teen is the youngest woman to reach the US Open semifinals since Maria Sharapova did so at
4:45 PM ET NEW YORK — Leylah Fernandez was down a set and a break — 4-6, 2-4 — against 2016 US Open champion Angelique Kerber on Sunday, and the scorecard suggested that the teenager’s dream run was probably going to end soon. Still, Fernandez’s eyes glinted. She served with abandon, faster and more precise.
7:48 AM ET NEW YORK — On Monday afternoon, Arthur Ashe Stadium witnessed a quiet celebration of two of Britain’s finest women tennis players. One is an 18-year-old phenomenon, who is keeping both the UK — and the world — spellbound with her forehand rippers. The other is a 76-year-old legend and former US Open
4:58 PM ET ESPN News Services NEW YORK — For half an hour and a full set at the start, then one particularly compelling and competitive game later, Novak Djokovic‘s opponent in the US Open’s fourth round, Jenson Brooksby, gave him fits and created a raucous atmosphere under the lights at Arthur Ashe Stadium. That
1:49 PM ET Associated Press Belinda Bencic is back into the quarterfinals of the US Open. The Olympic gold medalist from Switzerland beat Iga Swiatek 7-6 (12), 6-3 to make the last eight in Flushing Meadows for the third time. The 11th-seeded Bencic pulled out the lengthy first-set tiebreaker, then took the second set in
7:00 AM ET D’Arcy MaineESPN.com NEW YORK — Two days after making his auspicious introduction to tennis fans, Carlos Alcaraz took the court in front of a capacity crowd of more than 8,000 in Grandstand stadium for his fourth-round match at the US Open on Sunday. Even with the looming threat of rain, there was
4:00 PM ET ESPN staff One week into the US Open, there has been no shortage of excitement, upsets, and yes, drama. No. 1 Ash Barty was stunned in the third round by American Shelby Rogers on Saturday night. A day earlier, Naomi Osaka lost in third round to Leylah Fernandez. Elsewhere in the tournament,
8:00 AM ET NEW YORK — While all eyes have been on Novak Djokovic and his quest for the Calendar Slam, three teens have been creating their own storylines at this year’s US Open. It has been an impressive stretch — Carlos Alcaraz, 18, became the youngest man to beat a top-three player at the
12:30 AM ET D’Arcy MaineESPN.com NEW YORK — There were 22 American women in the draw at the start of the US Open. Among them were rising stars, teen phenoms and even a former champion. But on Saturday night, just one countrywoman remained, and she frankly was none of those things. After defeating world No.
9:59 PM ET NEW YORK — In a fierce third-round battle that lasted two hours and nine minutes, Wimbledon champion and World No. 1 Ashleigh Barty blew a comfortable third-set lead and was ousted from the US Open by 43rd-ranked American Shelby Rogers 6-2 2-6 7-6. Barty got off to a slow start in the
9:00 AM ET NEW YORK — Naomi Osaka did not want to be cut off. She did not want to be rescued. Yes, she was crying in her US Open postmatch news conference, crying as she struggled to find the right words so she could share what was on her mind, but each time the