Key events
Alcaraz breaks in first game of first set!
First set: *Alcaraz 1-0 Evans (*denotes next server)
Evans’ first serve is not cooperating early as Alcaraz gets the opening game to 30-all. The Spaniard then rips a backhand return winner for 30-40 and an early break-point opportunity. Evans saves it, then saves another moments later for a second deuce. Evans then double-faults, gifting Alcaraz a third chance at a break. This time he capitalizes, cracking a forehand winner to settle a highlight-reel 24-stroke exchange.
Britain’s Jack Draper has taken the first set from Michael Mmoh of the United States over on Grandstand. The 123rd-ranked Draper has won all seven sets he’s played at Flushing Meadows. He’s held serve in 30 of 33 games so far while converting 13 of 26 break points.
The second-seeded Aryna Sabalenka is flying along over on Armstrong. She’s up a set and a break against France’s Clara Burel with one foot in the fourth round, where she will face the winner of the Daria Kasatkina-Greet Minnen match currently unfolding on Court 17. A semi-finalist at Flushing Meadows last year and the year before, Sabalenka can overtake Iga Swiatek as world No 1 if she can equal the young Pole’s result here.
Preamble
Hello and welcome to the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center for today’s sixth day of the US Open. It’s a gorgeous Saturday afternoon in Queens – 74F (23C) with light wind and hardly a cloud in the sky – as the top half of the men’s draw looks to book passage to the round of 16.
First up on Arthur Ashe Stadium is a third-round clash between Britain’s Dan Evans and Carlos Alcaraz, the world’s top-ranked player (for another nine days at least) and defending US Open champion who is coming in off a drama-free second-round win over Lloyd Harris.
It promises to be a stuff test for the 26th-seeded Evans, who is aiming to become the third British man to defeat a world No 1 at a grand slam after Andy Murray and Greg Rusedski. But he is coming into the match on a tailwind of optimism, as our Tumaini Carayol notes:
The past few weeks, however, have been particularly significant in the context of Evans’ career. Before the US hard court summer, it had been one of his most difficult periods since he returned from his doping ban after testing positive for cocaine.
Between February and July, Evans had compiled a dire five-win, 14-defeat record and he had lost in the first round at 12 of those events. After the French Open, a straight-sets loss to the world No 108, Thanasi Kokkinakis, he was deeply frustrated and at a loss about how to dig himself out of the hole. He eventually opted to split from his coach, Sebastián Prieto, and the rest of his Argentinian team.
But things can change very quickly in tennis. After starting his North American hard-court swing with a first round loss to the world No 88, Dominic Köpfer, in Atlanta, Evans headed to Washington, an ATP 500 event, where he lost the first set to Grégoire Barrère 6-2.
Suddenly, everything clicked into place. He breezed through the rest of the week without dropping a set, defeating top opposition in Frances Tiafoe and Grigor Dimitrov, world Nos 10 and 20 respectively, while playing perhaps the best tennis of his entire career. His smooth, varied and attacking all-court game was in full flow as he won his biggest title to date.
The players should be on court in about 10 minutes. In the meantime, we’ll catch you up with some of the other early happenings around the grounds.
