New York - 09/11
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Ace Cream's daily newsletter during Masters 1000s and Grand Slams, every morning at 8:30.
Today is Friday, September 11, in New York it's 02:30 and it's 24 degrees. Okay, let's go.
On the menu today
- 🇮🇹 Bolelli and Vavassori exit in the doubles quarterfinals
- 🇧🇾 Sabalenka gets past Pegula, reaches fourth straight final
- 🇰🇿 Rybakina comes back past Gauff to complete the final
- 🇺🇸 Men's semifinals: Zverev-Khachanov and the American derby
WHAT HAPPENED YESTERDAY:
🇮🇹 Bolelli And Vavassori Exit In The Doubles Quarterfinals
Simone Bolelli and Andrea Vavassori lost 6-3, 6-2 to Christian Harrison and Neal Skupski in an hour and twenty-two minutes on Arthur Ashe, late in the evening in New York.
The break point comes in the game lost at love to open the second set: from there, Harrison and Skupski played out the rest without ever putting the outcome back in doubt. The Italian pair, seeded fourth, leave New York with a first quarterfinal at Flushing Meadows and a ranking that edges them closer to the Turin Finals. Matches wrapped up in a little over an hour almost always tell you less than the scoreline suggests.
WHAT HAPPENED OVERNIGHT:
🇧🇾 Sabalenka Gets Past Pegula, Reaches Fourth Straight Final
Aryna Sabalenka beat Jessica Pegula 7-5, 6-2.
The match turned on the American's second serve: that's what Sabalenka waited on through the whole first set, before taking the break late. It's her fourth straight final in New York and her nineteenth consecutive win at the US Open, and on Saturday she could become the first player since Serena Williams to win three in a row. "No complaints," she said, "I'm just happy I managed to bring out tennis like that."
🇰🇿 Rybakina Comes Back Past Gauff To Complete The Final
Elena Rybakina beat Coco Gauff 3-6, 6-4, 6-4 and is into the US Open final for the first time.
76% of points won on first serve against the American's 58% shows where the match turned after the opening set. The Kazakh converted four of her six break points. "I know you wanted Coco to win," she said afterward, in front of an Ashe crowd that included Michelle Obama. Until this year she had never gone past the fourth round in New York, and on Saturday she arrives as the presumptive number one against the still-reigning number one.
WHAT'S HAPPENING TODAY:
- Siniakova/Townsend vs Krueger/Montgomery - Women's doubles final on Ashe from 18:00 Italian time. The Americans came in as wild cards and in previous rounds came back from 2-8 down in a tiebreak against the No. 2 seeds, while Siniakova and Townsend are chasing their fourth Slam title together.
- Zverev vs Khachanov - Ashe, not before 21:00 Italian time. Zverev leads 6-3 head-to-head and 5-3 on hard courts, but they haven't met since 2025, and the Russian, ranked 50th in the world, has dropped three sets across five matches.
- Tiafoe vs Shelton - Ashe, from 01:00 Italian time on Saturday. Shelton leads the head-to-head 3-1, and they're even in New York (the 2023 quarterfinal went to him, 2024 to Tiafoe). The winner becomes the first American US Open finalist since Fritz in 2024.
Further reading
- US Open: Aryna Sabalenka is the first finalist
- US Open: Rybakina beats Gauff and flies into the final
- Bolelli and Vavassori, their US Open ends in the quarterfinals
- Zverev-Khachanov and Tiafoe-Shelton today, US Open 2026: semifinal times, TV, streaming
- Rybakina ends Gauff's run, gets reigning champ Sabalenka in US Open final
Enjoy your breakfast and have a great day.
See you tomorrow at 08:30 with TIE-Breakfast
