The third round of action began in New York on Friday, with Carlos Alcaraz and Novak Djokovic taking Ashe, while the three of them trek to Armstrong and the stands. This is what we want to see.
Check out the sixth day schedule for the whole day here
Novak at night
Novak Djokovic may be on a sports test in New York on Friday night as the 24-time main champion faces Cameron Norrie. It’s a preference for Djokovic, who won all six clashes with Britain, but Djokovic will have to show better energy than he showed in his first two wins, while learners Tien and Zachary Zvajda must show.
It’s hard to know what the 38-year-old expects, but the good news is that he’s won two wins in his first game since Wimbledon. Maybe it allowed him to get rid of the rust and fatigue he felt in the first two games.
No. 35 Norrie made the ranking this year, but he made the tournament, riding three straight wins on the hard court and losing three straight wins on the first round in Canada to Cincinnati and Cincinnati to seedless players.
Raducanu vs Rybakina
Emma Raducanu beat just six of her two matches, and she slammed her burnt form with Armstrong’s Elena Rybakina, first of all. The 2021 champion looks comfortable in New York and she may cause big problems for Rybakina, who is trying to reach Week 1 for the first time at the Open.
Townsend becomes the spotlight
Taylor Townsend has been in the news since defeating Jelena Ostapenko in the second round, but no one is talking about her tennis. That should change Friday night, she faced 18-year-old Mirra Andreeva in the third round in the final night of Arthur Ashe Stadium.
Townsend will do his best to get the crowd involved and attack the Russian artisans on his second attempt to enter the fourth round. The U.S. Open is her only Grand Slam yet to reach her second week, and the fifth seed will try to change that on Friday.
A strange statistic: The last two teenagers won the championship in India’s Wells, who won the U.S. Open the same year. This happened in Serena Williams in 1999, and in 2019 Bianca Andreescu. Will Andreeva beat Sabalenka in the unforgettable Indian Well final, and this is third?
Americans don’t have Ashe
Three American men will be in action on Friday but none of them will play on Ashe. Ben Shelton will take to Armstrong against Adrian Mannarino, the 37-year-old Frenchman; Taylor Fritz gets the Armstrong night session against Swiss qualifier Jerome Kym, while Frances Tiafoe treks out to Grandstand to face German qualifier Jan-Lennard Struff. We believe that Americans will design a clean sweep 3-0.
