NEW YORK — Women’s No. 1 Ashleigh Barty is out of the US Open.
Shelby Rogers took the first set and rallied from three points down in the third to upset Barty 6-2, 1-6, 7-6 (5) on Saturday night at Arthur Ashe Stadium to reach the fourth round.
Rogers had been 0-6 lifetime against top-seeded players.
Rogers, the last American left in the women’s draw, was fantastic in the third, hitting backhand winners and using a 103 mph serve to fight her way back against the reigning Wimbledon champion.
Barty had not dropped a set in the tournament but was sloppy from the start. She made 17 unforced errors in the first set and then three more when she held a 5-2 lead in the third that let Rogers back in.
As they are for most Americans, the Ashe crowd roared for Rogers on every winner, and she waved her arms and exhorted the fans to get louder. The 28-year-old Rogers broke Barty twice in the third when Barty served for the match.
Rogers beat Barty for the first time in six career meetings, five of them this year.
Next for Rogers is a fourth-round match against unseeded Emma Raducanu, who continued her run at the US Open with a 6-0, 6-1 victory over Sara Sorribes Tormo.
In other women’s third-round matches, Maria Sakkari continued her run of success against top-20 opponents, beating two-time Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova 6-4, 6-3.
Sakkari, who is seeded 17th and was a semifinalist at the French Open this year, collected her eighth victory this season against an opponent ranked in the top 20. She had nine aces and never lost on serve as she made it to Week 2 at Flushing Meadows for the second year in a row.
Kvitova, seeded 10th, finished with more than twice as many unforced errors, 34-16.
Sakkari will next face 2019 champion Bianca Andreescu, who improved to 10-0 for her US Open career with a 6-1, 6-2 victory over 104th-ranked Greet Minnen of Belgium.
The Canadian player, who is seeded sixth, won the match in little more than an hour as she delivered 21 winners and made just 11 unforced errors, while saving all four break points she faced.
Minnen got into the field as a “lucky loser” — someone who lost in qualifying but moved into the main draw when another player withdrew.
Andreescu beat Serena Williams in the final in New York two years ago in her US Open debut at age 19. Andreescu then missed last year’s trip to Flushing Meadows with one of a series of injuries that have interrupted her still-young career.
Tokyo Olympic gold medalist Belinda Bencic, seeded 11th, also reached the fourth round, with a 6-2, 6-4 victory over No. 23 Jessica Pegula in a rematch from the Summer Games.
Bencic was a semifinalist at the 2019 US Open. She will next face Iga Swiatek, who became the first Polish woman in five years to reach the fourth round with a 6-3, 4-6, 6-3 win over Anett Kontaveit.
The seventh-seeded Swiatek, who won the French Open in 2020, has now advanced to the fourth round of each of the Grand Slam tournaments over her career.
Raducanu, who was born in Canada and represents Britain, is into the fourth round at the US Open after getting to Week 2 of Wimbledon in her major debut at age 18. She has won all 12 sets she has played in New York, with three wins in qualifying and three in the main draw.
She had 29 winners against Tormo.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Source:ESPN
