Tokyo champion Kunieda earns fast US Open start
Shingo Kunieda got his quest for an eighth US Open men’s wheelchair singles title off to a flying start when he eased past Casey Ratzlaff 6-1 6-0 in his opening match at Flushing Meadows.
The world No.1, who won a gold medal at his home Paralympic Games in Japan less than a week ago, got off to a slow start, losing his opening game to the American but then won 12 consecutive games to book his spot in the semi-finals in just 75 minutes.
“Last week was the happiest moment of my life so it was a little bit difficult to play again here. The gold medal gives me energy and confidence and I played well today,” said the defending US Open champion.
Gordon Reid awaits Kunieda in the semi-finals after the Brit got the better of Paralympic silver medallist Tom Egberink, who was making his debut in New York, 6-1 6-4 to extend his head-to-head record over the Dutch player to 17-0.
The pair traded breaks at the start of the match before Reid, the Tokyo bronze medallist, won a string of five straight games to take the first set. Egberink found his form in the second set, extending the rallies and cutting down his unforced error count to put Reid under pressure but he couldn’t find a way past the lefthander.
“My serve was a highlight for me today, not only the first serve percentage but also the variety," said the world No.5.
"I think I moved well and got to a few balls that perhaps Tom wasn’t expecting me to and made him play that extra shot a few times and that will be important again tomorrow.”
The second men’s wheelchair singles semi-final will see No.2 seed Alfie Hewett, who overcame France’s Nicolas Peifer 7-5 6-2 in his quarterfinal match on Court 12, take on Gustavo Fernandez, who triumphed over Stephane Houdet 6-4 6-3.
It was a third consecutive US Open meeting for Fernandez and Houdet with the Argentinian coming out on top for the second straight year. When they met at this stage of the competition in 2019 it was Houdet who won and in doing so ended Fernandez’s hopes of completing the calendar Grand Slam.
“I feel great. I’m playing good tennis and when that happens it’s easy to get used to different time zones and different situations,” said Fernandez, who bowed out to Reid in the quarter-finals in Tokyo.
“I’m really happy with the way I’m performing in the last week and prior to the match here. It was a weird day. We didn’t know whether we were going to play (due to the rain), so that makes tough conditions and it’s a bit strange to get focused on the match, but I think I did a great job and I’m happy.”
In the women’s event top seed Diede de Groot remained on course to achieve the Golden Slam after she defeated Colombia’s Angelica Bernal for the loss of just two games in 50 minutes. De Groot’s compatriot, Aniek Van Koot, the 2013 US Open champion, also looked impressive as she made light work of Dana Mathewson 6-1 6-2.
There were also wins for No.2 seed Yui Kamiji, who prevailed 14-12 in an epic opening set tiebreak against Kgothatso Montjane before going on to win the match 7-6(12) 6-2, and Jordanne Whiley, who emerged victorious from a three-set tussle with Japan’s Momoko Ohtani.
“She’s improved a lot in 18 months [since they last played], she’s a lot more aggressive but to be honest I wasn’t really on top form today," said Whiley.
"I’ve had about three hours sleep in the last few days, I’m really jet-lagged and it’s a different surface and different balls from Tokyo so I was really struggling and had to just find a way to get the job done.”
Wet weather affected play at Flushing Meadows on Thursday. Both Kunieda and Reid started their matches on outside courts and were moved to Louis Armstrong Court while all other matches faced lengthy rain delays. All the scheduled quad quarter-final matches were cancelled.