Maria Sharapova blew away a one-set lead to crash out of the 2017 US Open while Petra Kvitova continued her remarkable comeback with a straight-set win over Garbine Muguruza.
Sharapova, who was playing in her first Grand Slam tournament since returning back from her doping ban, looked set to enter the quarter-final when she took the opening set against Latvian 16th seed Anastasija Sevastova.
However Sevastova came back strongly to win the next two sets 6-4, 6-2 to make it to her second ever Grand Slam quarter-final. The Latvian had previously made it to the fourth round of the 2011 Australian Open but looked to be showing good signs this year with third round entries at the Australian and the French Open.
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Sevastova needed two hours and 15 minutes at the Arthur Ashes Stadium to get the better of Sharapova, and later said it was her fighting ability that saw her through to the next round.
“Playing on [Arthur] Ashe is amazing. It makes it fun to play here. The first set could have gone either way. I just kept fighting, running down every ball.”
And Sevastova will now take on Sloane Stephens in the quarter-finals after the unseeded American needed three sets of her own to defeat 30th seeded Julia Goerges. She won 6-3, 3-6, 6-1 to enter the last eight stage.
In one of the bigger upsets of the competition, Wimbledon winner Muguruza also crashed out, going down to Petra Kvitova in straight sets in their fourth round encounter.
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Kvitova, who wasn’t even sure she would be holding a racquet after a stabbing incident late last year, missed the Australian Open and despite her comeback at the French, she went out in the second round there and at Wimbledon.
A win over one of the pre-tournament favourites will do Kvitova a world of good, especially as she now takes on Venus Williams in the round of 16.
The ninth seeded Venus, whose sister Serena just gave birth to a baby, was a 6-3, 3-6, 6-1 winner over Carla Suarez Navarro in her fourth round match on Sunday.
In the men’s singles fourth round matches, 29th seeded Diego Schwartzman, who had earlier sent the fifth seeded Marin Cilic packing, overcame 16th seeded Louise Pouille in a four-setter and he will now take on 12th seeded Pablo Carreno Busta in his quarter-final.
Busta overcame Canadian qualifier Denis Shapovalov in three tie-breakers to end his dream run.
The other men’s singles quarter-final will see Kevin Anderson take on Sam Querrey. Anderson was a 6-4, 6-3, 6-7, 6-4 winner over Pablo Lorenzi while Querrey destroyed Mischa Zverev in straight sets.
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