2024 US Open Day 5: Shelton v Tiafoe, Coco v Svitolina; Djokovic At Night

The third round gets underway at the US Open with a blockbuster slate of 16 matches.

It’s American-heavy during the afternoon on Ashe with Coco Gauff and Elina Svitolina meeting for a third time. The two split their previous encounters with Gauff taking down Svitolina to win her lone title of 2024 in Auckland to start the season.

Gauff has won her last nine matches here. Svitolina will be a factor.

Ben Shelton and Frances Tiafoe meet in a rematch from their quarterfinal a year ago. The younger Shelton won that as well as a Houston final on clay. Tiafoe has been the better player of late, though, making the Cincinnati final.

“Frances is probably the best in our sport in the recent years on the American side of reaching that casual sports fan, being the guy that gets on ESPN or mainstream media,” said Shelton.

“He’s got all the hooper friends who come to his matches, travel to see him play, the music industry. I think that he’s done a great job of kind of putting American tennis on the map in different sports and kind of making it cool again.”

Tiafoe says he’s ready.

“I feel sharp, I feel ready. Ready for war, ready to continue to compete for this thing,” he said. “You’ve got to be ready to give everything now… Whatever you gotta do, do it. I’ll be ready come Friday.”

Novak Djokovic is on at night against Alexei Popyrin who just won Canada. It’s their third meeting at a Slam this year with Djokovic winning in Australia and at Wimbledon, both in four sets.

Aryna Sabalenka closes Ashe against Ekaterina Alexandrova.

On Armstrong, Paula Badosa, Emma Navarro and Taylor Fritz are on during the day with two good ones at night, Madison Keys against Elise Mertens and Alexander Zverev faces Tomas Martin Etcheverry.

FRIDAY US OPEN SCHEDULE
Arthur Ashe Stadium, Day Session – 12:00 PM Start
Elina Svitolina (UKR) [27] vs. Coco Gauff (USA) [3]
Ben Shelton (USA) [13] vs. Frances Tiafoe (USA) [20]

7:00 PM Start
Alexei Popyrin (AUS) [28] vs. Novak Djokovic (SRB) [2]
Ekaterina Alexandrova (RUS) [29] vs. Aryna Sabalenka (BLR) [2]

Louis Armstrong Stadium, Day Session – 11:00 AM Start
Elena-Gabriela Ruse (ROU) (Q) vs. Paula Badosa (ESP) [26]
Emma Navarro (USA) [13] vs. Marta Kostyuk (UKR) [19]
Francisco Comesana (ARG) vs. Taylor Fritz (USA) [12]

7:00 PM Start
Madison Keys (USA) [14] vs. Elise Mertens (BEL) [33]
Tomas Martin Etcheverry (ARG) vs. Alexander Zverev (GER) [4]