History maker! Yuki Bhambri storms into maiden Grand Slam quarterfinal at US Open

TOI in New York: Yuki Bhambri lifted the mood for India on a cloudy evening at the Queens borough.Bhambri and New Zealand’s Michael Venus, the 14^th seeds in the US Open men’s doubles draw, played their sharpest tennis in a while to upset the number four seeds Germans Kevin Krawietz and Tim Puetz.

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The Indo-Kiwi combine came through 6-4, 6-4 in one-hour 23-minutes to move into the quarterfinals at the Billie Jean King National Tennis Centre on Tuesday.This is the 33-year-old Indian’s first major quarterfinals.
In a long-drawn ninth game that went to five deuces the Indo-Kiwi combine had multiple chances to break and finally took it on the fourth opportunity before closing out the set on their third set point much to the delight of Indian fans who had crowded Court No.11.In the second set the 14^th seeds fell back 2-4 after being broken in the sixth game.There on they won four successive games with Bhambri setting up the break back with a two-hander down-the-line. He followed it up with another backhand return, this time going crosscourt and Krawietz could only stuff a backhand volley into the net on the second breakpoint.Venus, the senior partner in age 37 and ranking 25, and Bhambri, broke again before the Indian served out the match.

“It was a pretty good match from us today, one of the better matches we have played, it was almost clean,” said Bhambri of their effort on court, where they had just eight unforced errors. “To come back and beat the Germans who I have lost twice to at Wimbledon last year and at Munich this year was extra special.”“A match-up like this is always tough and tricky, we were really composed today. We kept fighting for points even when we were sometimes down in the game and gave ourselves chances to do good and eventually here I am in the quarterfinals of the US Open.”“Hopefully we can keep going and keep getting better as a team,” Bhambri finished.Next up for Bhambri and Venus are the 11^th seeds Nikola Mektic of Croatia and American Rajeev Ram in the quarterfinals on Wednesday.

Maaya shows her fight

Maaya Rajeshwaran Revathi gave the Louis Armstrong stadium a glimpse of the size of her fight.The 16-year-old, whose match against the No.2 seed in the junior girls draw Briton Hannah Klugman, was played on the second biggest show court in this sprawling arena, was unphased as she went toe-to-toe with Klugman for the two-hours they were on court.Maaya, playing her first junior Grand Slam main draw, went down 7-6 (1), 4-6, 3-6 in just over two-hours. It was a quality match from both players – where a combined count of 47 winners were clocked (Klugman had 26) and 68 unforced errors (38 from the Brit). The difference between the two showed in the breakpoints the No.2 seed saved six of 12, while the Indian managed one of nine.Maaya was told by her coach the previous night that she was scheduled to play second on Armstrong.

The teenager’s reaction was, no way! The Indian got to hit on the match court for an hour before the start of play.Maaya, who swept to 3-0 lead in the first set, said there were nerves despite what the scoreboard said.“As the more the match progressed, I was able to put my head down and do what I had to do,” she said. “It was an amazing experience and I was happy that there were so many people watching us.” Maaya thought her best chance to close the match was in the second set.

“I was up by a set and leading 4-3 in the second,” she said. “Maybe if I could have done better on that one game at 4-3 I would have had a chance, but kudos to Hannah. She’s very experienced at this level and she played very well.”

Maaya was back on court a couple of hours later for the girls doubles first round where she partnered Argentina’s Luna Maria Cinalli. The Indo-Argentine pair went down 2-6, 2-6 to the fourth seeds Belgian Jeline Vandromme and Lithuania’s Laima Vladson.In the junior boys doubles, Kriish Tyagi and Taipei’s Chen Kuan-Shou lost to the seventh-seeded American pairing of Noah Johnston and Benjamin Willwerth 6-4, 6-7 (4), 13-11 after saving eight match points in the super tie-break.Johnston and Willwerth led 9-4 but the Indo-Taipei combine levelled at 9-9 and continued to push, but couldn’t quite swing it their way.India’s Hitesh Chauhan and Spain’s Tito Chavez were ousted by fourth seeds Russia’s Timofei Derepasko and Alexander Vasilev of Bulgaria 1-6, 4-6.