No. 1 shocker: Jelena Ostapenko ends Iga Swiatek’s title defence and dethrones her from No. 1 spot

New York, September 4

Iga Swiatek arrived at the US Open as its reigning champion, as the winner at three of the past six Grand Slam tournaments and as the owner of the No. 1 ranking for nearly one-and-a-half years.

None of that mattered on Sunday night against Jelena Ostapenko, whose powerful style disrupts Swiatek’s rhythm — and beats her every time.

75 Since April 4, 2022 — when she became No. 1 in the WTA rankings — Swiatek is the player with the most WTA titles (9), finals (12), matches won (97), winning ratio (85.8%) and top-10 defeated (17). Her run at the top lasted for 75 weeks.

1 The win makes Ostapenko the only WTA player to own four wins against Swiatek.

Swiatek’s title defence at Flushing Meadows ended in the fourth round with a 3-6 6-3 6-1 loss to 2017 French Open champion Ostapenko in the fourth round at Arthur Ashe Stadium. The result also means Swiatek’s stay at atop the WTA will end next week, when current No. 2 Aryna Sabalenka will rise to the top spot for the first time.

I’m just surprised that my level changed so drastically, because usually when I play bad, I play bad at the beginning, then I kind of catch up. This time it was totally the opposite. Iga Swiatek

“There are some sad emotions” about falling from No. 1, Swiatek acknowledged, while also saying of her reign atop women’s tennis: “It was pretty exhausting.”

Meanwhile, American teenager Coco Gauff ended Caroline Wozniacki’s US Open comeback with a 6-3 3-6 6-1 victory to reach the quarterfinals. The Dane, who returned to Flushing Meadows for the first time since 2019 after coming out of retirement following the birth of her two children, kept sixth seed Gauff on her toes for two sets but in the end her lack of match practice caught up with her and she ran out of steam.

Madison Keys stunned third seed Jessica Pegula 6-1 6-3 in an all-American clash. Wimbledon champion Marketa Vondrousova continued her impressive run, with the Czech ninth-seed beating American Peyton Stearns 6-7(3) 6-3 6-2.

Djokovic marches on

After a five-set nail-biter in the previous round, Novak Djokovic was in no mood for another tense evening on Sunday and the Serb cruised into the last-eight of the year’s final Grand Slam with a 6-2 7-5 6-4 over Borna Gojo.

Djokovic had endured a far more testing match on Friday, having to come back from two-sets down against Laslo Djere to keep alive his bid for a fourth US Open title that would see him match Margaret Court’s record haul of 24 Grand Slams.

On Sunday, the 36-year-old Serb broke to open the contest and was never threatened as Gojo managed only a single break chance in the entire match. Djokovic committed just 12 unforced errors compared to 40 by the 105th-ranked Croat. “I was watching him play qualifications, last couple of rounds of the main draw, and saw that he’s a big shot player,” said Djokovic. — Agencies

Bopanna-Ebden enter quarterfinals

New York: India’s Rohan Bopanna and his Australian partner Matthew Ebden advanced to the men’s doubles quarterfinals at the US Open with a hard-fought three-set win over Julian Cash and Henry Patten. The sixth seeded Indo-Australian pair won 6-4 6-7(5) 7-6(10-6) against the British duo of Cash and Patten after toiling hard for two hours 22 minutes in the third round on Sunday.