NEW YORK – While the Americans are all done in singles at the U.S. Open, there's still some home hopes in doubles.
In fact, at least one U.S. man is already guaranteed to play for the title.
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Sam Querrey and Steve Johnson reached the semifinals of the men's draw after a 6-2, 7-6 (5) victory over the No. 6-seeded team of Kevin Krawietz and Horia Tecau on Tuesday.
No Americans reached the quarterfinals in singles, the first time that’s ever happened at the U.S. Open, first held in 1881.
Given a wild card into the tournament, Querrey and Johnson will face the fourth-seeded team of American Rajeev Ram and Britain's Joe Salisbury in the semifinals.
Coco Gauff and Caty McNally can reach the women's semifinals Wednesday. Seeded 11th, the teenagers play the top-seeded team of Elise Mertens and Hsieh Su-Wei.
BACK AGAINST THE WALL
Before he was a top tennis star, Daniil Medvedev sometimes felt crowded on the court.
Unlike Arthur Ashe Stadium, where he won Tuesday to reach the U.S. Open semifinals, many smaller courts don't have much space beyond the baselines.
Without that extra room, Medvedev couldn't always move as far back to return serve as he likes when he was a lower-ranked player who didn't get to play on the biggest stage.
“That’s not good,” Medvedev said. “I was not feeling good, because I could lose matches just because I felt like I was, if I can say, discriminated that I couldn’t use my position on the return.”
Sometimes standing well behind the line, Medvedev broke six times in Botic van de Zandschulp's first eight service games en route to his 6-3, 6-0, 4-6, 7-5 victory Tuesday.
There's no guarantee Medvedev will continue to take the same position. He said when he reached the final of the Australian Open this year, he stood much closer to the line because he felt it was working better.
“If you see all of my matches, sometimes I change it up. Depends the opponent,” Medvedev said. “Being far back just gives me time to react to the serve. That’s as easy as that.”
SHELBY AND SOCIAL MEDIA
Shelby Rogers was exaggerating when she said she expected 9 million death threats on social media after her U.S. Open loss Monday.
She still wants it known that social media abuse exists.
Rogers brought up the issue in her press conference following her 6-2, 6-1 loss to Emma Raducanu in the fourth round. The American had knocked out No. 1 seed Ash Barty in her previous match but dropped 11 straight games Monday.
She discussed her feelings more Tuesday in social media posts.
“It wasn’t the intention for my 1 exaggerated statement to be highlighted-I just always try to answer the press truthfully,” Rogers wrote. “The amount of positive support I get vastly overshadows the online abuse but it’s important to be aware that it does exist so we can prepare & deal with it.”
Rogers added: “I’ll never run away from the negativity - it’s the reality of social media/gambling/sport but maybe we can expose it and teach each other how to beat it.”
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