Russia's Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova battled back to defeat seventh-seeded Italian Francesca Schiavone 5-7, 6-3, 6-4 to reach her first U.S. Open quarterfinal on Monday in a mistake-plagued last 16 clash.
Pavlyuchenkova, the 17th seed, triumphed in a match-up of the youngest and oldest players left in the women's draw.
But Monday's two-hour and 42minutes clash, which opened the Arthur Ashe Stadium programme on Labor Day, a national holiday in the U.S., was not for the purists with 21 double faults, 16 breaks of serve and a combined 95 unforced errors.
“It's a dream come true for me to reach the quarterfinals here for the first time. I'm so happy about it,” said Pavlyuchenkova, who lost to Schiavone at the same stage last year and in the quarterfinals of this season's French Open.
The 20-year-old needed three match points to secure victory after squandering two with a pair of ugly forehands before a booming forehand winner wrapped up the affair.
On Sunday, fourth-seeded Andy Murray, the 2008 runner-up, took his career record against Spanish left-hander Feliciano Lopez to six wins in six meetings thanks to an impressive 6-1, 6-4, 6-2 victory.
Murray didn't concede a point on his own serve in a brutal first set which set the tone for the one-sided tie.
He now faces American wildcard Donald Young, the former junior No.1, who reached the fourth round at a Grand Slam for the first time with a 7-5, 6-4, 6-3 win over Argentine 24th seed Juan Ignacio Chela.
Murray lost to Young in their only previous meeting at Indian Wells this year.
del Potro loses
Argentine 18th seed Juan Martin del Potro, the 2009 champion — who missed last year's title defence because of a serious wrist injury — saw his hopes dashed by 12th seed Gilles Simon in a four-hour marathon. The French 12th seed booked his place in the last 16 for the first time with a 4-6, 7-6(5), 6-2, 7-6(3) win over del Potro who committed 72 unforced errors and squandered three set points in the 10th game of the fourth set.
Simon will face 28th seed John Isner who defeated fellow American Alex Bogomolov 7-6(9), 6-4, 6-4.
Record tie-break
Ninth-seeded Samantha Stosur dropped an epic second-set tiebreaker — WTA said it was the longest women's singles tiebreaker at a Grand Slam tournament — but recovered to beat 25th seed Maria Kirilenko 6-2, 6-7(15), 6-3 to reach the women's quarterfinals.
Last year's runner-up Vera Zvonareva, the No.2 seed, advanced with a 6-2, 6-3 victory over Sabine Lisicki, a semifinalist at Wimbledon this year.
Italy's Flavia Pennetta carved out a 6-4, 7-6(6) victory over a fighting Peng Shuai to set up a quarterfinal meeting with German Angelique Kerber — a 6-4, 6-3 winner over Monica Niculescu.
Sania's campaign ends
Rohan Bopanna and Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi advanced to the men's doubles quarterfinals even as Sania Mirza and Elena Vesnina made their exit from the women's doubles competition with a third-round loss on Sunday. Bopanna and Qureshi, seeded fifth, defeated Paul Hanley and Dick Norman 6-2, 6-3 in a contest lasting a little over an hour. They now face the unseeded British pair of Colin Fleming and Ross Hutchins, who got a walkover from their 13th seeded Spanish rivals Marcel Granollers and Marc Lopez.
However, there was disappointment for India in the women's doubles event as Sania and her Russian partner Elena Vesnina lost to the Czech pair of Iveta Benesova and Barbora Zahlavova Strycova 6-7(4), 6-7(5).
Nadal suffers cramps
Meanwhile on Sunday, Rafael Nadal had a relatively comfortable time on court but a frightening and painful one off it, collapsing in agony during his post-match press conference.
The No.2 seed beat Argentine veteran David Nalbandian to progress to the round-of-16 but the toil from the match played in muggy conditions caught up to him in the media room. He rolled his head back, squeezed his eyes shut, covered his contorted face with his left arm as he stopped taking question. He paused between deep breaths to plead in Spanish, “Can you call a trainer for me, please?” Then slowly the defending champion slithered out of his chair and onto the ground.
Within minutes, Nadal was sitting up, and then standing, after being given bags of ice to soothe what was diagnosed as leg cramps. “It's bad luck it happened here,” Nadal said, “and not in the locker room. It was just cramping in the right leg, in the front and in the back. It was very painful, that's all,” said Nadal, who resumed his news conference standing instead of sitting.
A smiling Nadal said the incident will not affect his preparations against Luxembourg's Gilles Muller, scheduled for Tuesday.
