September 6, 2020 – Marin Cilic and Donna Vekic failed to join Borna Coric and Petra Martic in the last 16 of the US Open.
Donna Vekic has said farewell to this year’s US Open. The 24-year-old Osijek native lost her 3rd round match to 32-year-old Cvetana Pironkova, who plays with a protected ranking in New York (due to childbirth). Pironkova celebrated 6:4, 6:1 in her first tournament since Wimbledon 2017.
Donna started the match solidly, kept the score even at 4:4, and then took only one more game until the end of the match, the first in the second set. Vekic only used one break point out of four in the match. In the second set, she managed to get only four points on her opponent’s serve. It was their fourth meeting and the fourth victory of the Bulgarian tennis player.
The third-best tennis player in the world, Austrian Dominic Thiem, proved to be too strong for Marin Cilic in the 3rd round clash of this year’s US Open. The tournament’s former winner (2014) lost after four sets – 6:2, 6:2, 3:6, 6:3.
The Austrian won the first two sets in just 65 minutes of play, and Cilic did not reach a single break point in that period.
Cilic woke up in the third set, and in the sixth game, he stole his opponent’s serve for the first time and reduced the score to 1:2 in the sets. Who knows how the match would have unfolded if Marin had used one of three break opportunities to lead to 3:2 in the fourth set. Thiem managed to save them at 15:40 and immediately stole Marin’s serve in the next game. This was their third meeting and the third victory for Thiem.
Mate Pavic joined Nikola Mektic in the doubles quarterfinals of the US Open. Pavic and Brazilian Bruno Soares celebrated in the second round against the American duo Jack Sock and Jackson Withrow – 5:7, 7:6 (5), 6:4. The Croatian-Brazilian team was on the verge of defeat, Sock and Withrow served for the victory in the second set with a 5:4 lead, but Pavic and Soares equalized through a tie-break. They had a chance to break in the seventh game of the deciding set, which was enough to pass among the eight best doubles teams in New York.
In the fight for the semifinals, Pavic and Soares will play British team Jamie Murray and Neal Skupski.
Source: HTS
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