U.S. Open Day 5 recap: Venus beats Bencic, advances to fourth round

US Open Day 5: Venus Williams beats Belinda Bencic, defending champion Marin Cilic advances,

Author:
Jamie Lisanti
Publish date:
Sep 4, 2015

NEW YORK – Catch up on the news and results from Day 5 on Friday at the U.S. Open in New York.

Venus Williams defeats Belinda Bencic in straights: The No. 23 seed is back into the fourth round at the U.S. Open for the first time since 2010 with a 6–3, 6–4 win over No. 12 seed Bencic on Friday. At 35 years old, Venus is the oldest woman in the women's draw. She needed three sets in her previous two matches, but closed out the win in two sets on Friday to bring her career record against the 18-year-old Bencic to 4–0. She'll play Estonian qualifier Anett Kontaveit, who defeated American Madison Brengle 6–2, 3–6, 6–0 on Friday.

Novak Djokovic gets past the Andreas Seppi test: The No. 1 seed was made to work hard in his third round match against Seppi on Friday, but he came away with a win over the No. 25 seed, 6–3, 7–5, 7–5. Seppi broke Djokovic's serve for the first time at this year's U.S. Open but Djokovic steadied and was able to move one step closer to his tenth major title.

Djokovic will play No. 23 Roberto Bautista Agut in the fourth round, who won on Friday after No. 14 David Goffin retired in the fourth set, marking the 13th retirement in the men’s draw this year.

U.S. Open Day 4 after dark: Wozniacki stumbles, Federer cruises

Marin Cilic gets through a five-setter: Defending champion Cilic finally dropped a set at the U.S. Open after winning 16 sets in a row—his final three matches of 2014 were won in straight sets and he continued the trend through his first two matches in 2015. But Mikhail Kukushkin, who upset No. 17 GrigorDimitrov in the second round, ended Cilic's winning ways and took the first set, 7–6(5). After Cilic took the third and Kukushkin won the fourth set, the No. 9 seed was finally able to close it out in the decider, winning 6–7(5), 7–6, 6–3, 6–7(), 6–1 in four hours and 16 minutes to advance to the fourth round.

Mladenovic and Makarova win the straights to set up fourth round meeting: DariaKasatkina's surprise run at the U.S. Open ended on Friday, as Kristina Mladenovic defeated the 18-year-old lucky loser, who earned a main draw spot after Maria Sharapova withdrew from the tournament. Mladenovic continues her run in New York with the 6–2, 6–3 victory over Kasatkina. The Frenchwoman is into the fourth round of a Grand Slam for the first time in her career.

Upset Alert: Only three top-10 seeded women remain in U.S. Open

No. 13 Ekaterina Makarova also won her third round match on Friday, taking down No. 17 seed Elina Svitolina 6–3, 7–5. Makarova, a U.S. Open semifinalist last year, and Mladenovic will meet in the fourth round on Sunday.

Benoit Paire is into Round of 16 at a major for first time: Paire, who upset No. 4 Kei Nishikori in the first round on Monday, defeated No. 26 seed Tommy Robredo 7–6(3), 6–1, 6–1 to advance to the fourth round at a major for the first time in his career.

EugenieBouchard continues her strong form, extends her winning streak: After winning on Wednesday against Polong Hercog to mark the first time she won two matches in a row since March, No. 25 Bouchard once again pulled out a three-set win on Friday, beating Dominika Cibulkova, 7–6(9), 4–6, 6–3. The first set lasted 72 minutes as Bouchard battled with Cibulkova to win the tiebreaker 11-9 and eventually went on to win in two hours and 48 minutes. The victory puts Bouchard on her first three-match winning streak since the Australian Open and she'll play Robert Vinci in the next round, who beat her 6–1, 6–0 just last week in New Haven.

More notable results: Jo-Wilfried Tsonga d. Sergiy Stakhovsky 6–3, 7–5, 6–2; Roberta Vinci d. Mariana Duque-Mariño, 6–1, 5–7, 6–2