Nadal Gets Fognini To Fade, Alcaraz Powers Into US Open 3R; Murray v Berrettini Fri

Carlos Alcaraz continued to showcase his power game Thursday afternoon at the US Open. The teen rolled past Federico Coria 6-2, 6-1, 7-5 to win his 46th match of the season.

Alcaraz was up a break in the third before Coria, who is the younger brother of clay great Guillermo, caught a breeze breaking Alcaraz then holding set points to break for the set.

Alcaraz avoided trouble and took care of business in straight sets.

Up next for the Spaniard in a good showdown Saturday against American Jenson Brooksby. The 21-year-old Brooksby saved seven set points in the second to beat Cincinnati winner Borna Coric in three sets 6-4, 7-6(10), 6-1.

Former champion Marin Cilic eased into the third round blowing past Albert Ramos Vinolas. He’ll now face Dan Evans.

Jannik Sinner also was a winner topping Chris Eubanks. Sinner will now meet another American in Brandon Nakashima who upset Grigor Dimitrov in straight sets.

Two-time quarterfinalist Andrey Rublev dominated Soonwoo Kwon in straight sets.

No. 8 seed Hubert Hurkacz also fell victim to the upset bug going down in four sets to Ilya Ivashka. Ivashka will get Lorenzo Musetti next.

In the nightcap, Rafael Nadal returned to face tricky Fabio Fognini and the Italian was up to his tricks again, dominating early to go up 6-2, 4-2 and in full control. Fognini, though, began to show signs of a tough opening five set win and his game began to drop.

Nadal was able to recover and run four games to steal the set to level. And then Rafa raced out to take the fourth but close the finish up 3-0 in the fourth, in a freak accident Nadal’s bounced off the court on a backhand follow-thru and hit the bridge of his nose.

Nadal immediately dropped his racquet and went to his chair and to lie down. The trainer entered and patched up the cut on Rafa’s nose.

A bandaged Nadal resumed but lost the next six points before finding the range again to win in 2-6, 6-4, 6-2, 6-1 and earn his 21st Slam match victory of the season.

Nadal improves to 14-4 against Fognini.

“Little bit dizzy in the the beginning, a little bit painful,” Nadal said of the injury.

“Try to play a little bit better, I had to start to feel myself a little bit on the court. For more than one hour and a half I was not competing. One of my worst starts ever.”

“It’s another opportunity. Still alive after a match like this means a lot.”

“I was able to get lucky that Fabio made some mistakes in the second set.”

Nadal will now meet Richard Gasquet who he leads 17-0 in their head-to-head.

Tomorrow, the third round opens up with Andy Murray returning to Ashe to face the burly Matteo Berrettini. The Italian has won two of three from the 2012 US Open winner but Murray pushed him to the distance in the Stuttgart final in June.

Daniil Medvedev is back under the lights to take on former US Open junior champion Yibing Wu. The 22-year-old Wu has won his last 15 matches, a streak that includes two Challenger titles and five wins this week at the US Open, three in qualifying.

Casper Ruud hooks up with Tommy Paul and Nick Kyrgios looks to move on against American JJ Wolf.

FRIDAY US OPEN SCHEDULE
Arthur Ashe Stadium, Day Session – 12:00 PM Start
Andy Murray (GBR) vs. Matteo Berrettini (ITA) [13]
Madison Keys (USA) [20] vs. Coco Gauff (USA) [12]

7:00 PM Start
Ajla Tomljanovic (AUS) vs. Serena Williams (USA)
Daniil Medvedev (RUS) [1] vs. Yibing Wu (CHN) (Q)

Louis Armstrong Stadium, Day Session – 11:00 AM Start
Ons Jabeur (TUN) [5] vs. Shelby Rogers (USA) [31]
Tommy Paul (USA) [29] vs. Casper Ruud (NOR) [5]
Alison Riske-Amritraj (USA) [29] vs. Xiyu Wang (CHN)

7:00 PM Start
Bianca Andreescu (CAN) vs. Caroline Garcia (FRA) [17]
Nick Kyrgios (AUS) [23] vs. J.J. Wolf (USA) (WC)

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