New York - 09/09
Good morning and welcome back to TIE-Breakfast: all the tennis you need with your coffee.
Ace Cream's daily newsletter during Masters 1000s and Grand Slams, every morning at 8:30.
Today is Wednesday, September 9th, and in New York it's 02:30 with 20 degrees. Okay, let's go.
On the menu today
- 🇧🇾 Sabalenka saves two tiebreaks against Noskova
- 🇺🇸 Tiafoe comes back from two sets down against Michelsen
- 🇺🇸 Pegula beats Navarro, sets up rematch with Sabalenka
- 🇪🇸 Shelton-Alcaraz still on court as this newsletter goes out
- 🇰🇿 Rybakina one match from world No. 1
- 🇩🇪 Zverev closes out the day against van de Zandschulp
WHAT HAPPENED YESTERDAY:
🇧🇾 Sabalenka Saves Two Tiebreaks Against Noskova
Aryna Sabalenka beat Linda Noskova 7-6(1), 3-6, 7-6(10-7) to reach the semifinals. She was down 4-2 in the third set and closed out the match tiebreak 10-7 with a second-serve ace.
Noskova took the first set Sabalenka had dropped in this tournament, one she'd entered on an eleven-match Slam winning streak. The Belarusian has never lost a quarterfinal in New York and has won her last ten tiebreaks here. On the decisive point, she said she caught Noskova wrong-footed: "I think she expected a kick serve to the backhand." At twenty-eight, she can become the first woman to win three straight US Open titles since Serena Williams between 2012 and 2014.
🇺🇸 Tiafoe Comes Back From Two Sets Down Against Michelsen
Frances Tiafoe beat Alex Michelsen 5-7, 3-6, 7-5, 6-3, 7-6(10-6) in just under four hours and forty minutes, coming back from two sets down and then 3-0 in the fifth. Michelsen had served for the match in the third.
It's the fifth two-sets-down comeback in a men's US Open quarterfinal in the Open era, the first since Federer's against Monfils in 2014. Tiafoe returns to the Flushing Meadows semifinals for the third time, after 2022 and 2024, and re-enters the top ten of the rankings. Afterward, he brushed off the first two sets, saying it hadn't been much of a show.
WHAT HAPPENED OVERNIGHT:
🇺🇸 Pegula Beats Navarro, Sets Up Rematch With Sabalenka
Jessica Pegula beat Emma Navarro 3-6, 6-4, 6-3 in the all-American quarterfinal of the evening session. Down 2-1 and facing serve in the third set, she won four games in a row.
Five meetings with Navarro, five wins. At thirty-two, Pegula reaches two Grand Slam semifinals in the same year for the first time, after the Australian Open back in January, and leads the tour with nineteen third-set match wins this season. This marks the third straight US Open in which she and Sabalenka meet from the semifinals onward: the 2024 final and the 2025 semifinal, both going to the Belarusian. Thursday brings chapter three, and Pegula gets there after a tournament spent mostly coming from behind.
WHAT'S HAPPENING TODAY:
- Shelton vs Alcaraz - Ashe, started overnight and still underway as this newsletter goes out. The winner faces Tiafoe in the semifinals, and for Shelton it would be his first win in four meetings with the Spaniard.
- Zheng vs Rybakina - Ashe, from 17:30 Italian time. Rybakina becomes world No. 1 if she advances, and before this year she'd never gone past the fourth round in New York. Zheng is the first qualifier to reach the quarterfinals here since Raducanu in 2021.
- Andreeva vs Gauff - Ashe, not before 18:30. Gauff has won all five previous meetings, four on clay and just one on hard courts, the last of them in the Rome quarterfinals back in May 2026.
- Khachanov vs Blockx - Ashe, not before 20:00. Blockx played almost all of the fourth round with rib pain, and the opening games will show how much he has left.
- Zverev vs van de Zandschulp - Ashe, not before 01:30. Zverev is the only man to reach the quarterfinals at all four Slams in 2026; the Dutchman comes in off a five-hour-thirteen-minute battle with Gea and just two days of rest.
Further reading
- Aryna Sabalenka survives a super tiebreak in New York
- US Open, Sabalenka: "Rybakina No. 1 and I win my third title here? Perfect."
- Tiafoe rises from the ashes against Michelsen: comeback from two sets down sends him into the semifinals
- Pegula outduels Navarro in all-American US Open quarterfinal
- Elena Rybakina closing in on becoming the new world No. 1
- Day 11 schedule: quarterfinals for Zverev and breakout star Blockx
Enjoy your breakfast and have a good day.
See you tomorrow at 08:30 for TIE-Breakfast
