US Open Tennis 2015 Results: Early Sunday Results, Highlights and Scores
Three former champions were all in action Sunday at the 2015 U.S. Open, and that was just in the first group of matches as Serena Williams, Venus Williams and Marin Cilic all advanced.
The tournament is starting to sort the contenders from the pretenders as the fourth round got underway. Reaching the quarterfinal is almost an imaginary standard by which to judge whether a player—especially for those outside the perceived elite—is truly a threat to win a major tournament.
Let's take a look at which stars made the jump Sunday.
Early Sunday Scores
| Men's Singles | |||
| Round 4 | Marin Cilic (9) | Jeremy Chardy (27) | 6-3, 2-6, 7-6(2), 6-1 |
| Round 4 | Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (19) | Benoit Paire | 6-4, 6-3, 6-4 |
| Women's Singles | |||
| Round 4 | Venus Williams (23) | Anett Kontaveit | 6-2, 6-1 |
| Round 4 | Serena Williams (1) | Madison Keys (19) | 6-3, 6-3 |
| Round 4 | Roberta Vinci | Eugenie Bouchard (25) | Walkover |
Recap
In the first women's singles match from Sunday's early session, Venus Williams had little trouble dispatching Anett Kontaveit. The 23rd-seeded American prevailed in straight sets, 6-2, 6-1, needing roughly 50 minutes to seal the victory.
Williams did little wrong in the match, winning 84 percent of her first-serve points while picking up four aces to just two double-faults. The 35-year-old also won four of her five break-point opportunities.
Kontaveit was constantly on the defensive, as evidenced by the final game of the first set, per the U.S. Open Tennis:
After getting pushed hard in her first two matches, Williams has now won rather convincingly in her last two, which is an encouraging sign, per WTA Insider:
The bad news is that Williams will face her sister, Serena, in the next round after Serena Williams beat Madison Keys. Sportscaster Jackie Mesa Pepper is already looking forward to the potential drama in a Serena-Venus matchup:
Venus is looking forward to facing Serena, who is on target to complete the Grand Slam in 2015.
"I get very nervous [watching]," said the elder Williams sister, per ESPN.com's Greg Garber (via ABC News). "Even though I have to play her, I want her to win. I hope we play in the quarterfinals."
Serena owns a 15-11 head-to-head advantage in their 26 meetings. That stat is a bit deceiving since Venus is just 3-7 against Serena in their last 10 matches. Also concerning for Venus is the fact Serena appears to be getting stronger the longer the tournament goes, per WTA Insider:
Keys had been looking good in the U.S. Open, winning her first three matches in straight sets, including an upset of 15th-seeded Agnieszka Radwanska. Then, she ran into Serena, who dominated every facet of the game.
If Serena loses at any point before the final, it would be a major surprise.
Over on the men's side, Marin Cilic and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga will be moving on to the quarterfinals.
Tsonga knocked off fellow Frenchman Benoit Paire in straight sets, 6-4, 6-3, 6-4, and looked very happy with the result, per Ricky Dimon:
Just about everything was working for Tsonga as he picked up 10 aces, 29 winners and won 21 of his 27 points at the net. The final point of the second set offers a good illustration of how he worked well from the baseline and then used that to open up chances at the net:
Tsonga also earned seven break-point opportunities, converting on three while winning 89 percent of his first-service points and 73 percent of his second-service points.
Tsonga will be looking to advance past the quarterfinals of the U.S. Open for the first time in his career, but he'll have a hard time accomplishing that task as he faces the defending champion in the next round.
The numbers behind Cilic's four-set win over Jeremy Chardy are something else. He registered 23 aces and only two double-faults but won a somewhat more lackluster—at least given he had that many aces—69 percent of his service points. Meanwhile, Cilic had just one fewer unforced error (23) but also had 17 more winners (52).
As Sports Illustrated's Courtney Nguyen tweeted, Cilic is one of those players who is immensely talented but still remains looking up at a glass ceiling in terms of his Grand Slam hopes:
Should Cilic beat Tsonga in the quarters, he could have a massive hurdle to scale in the semifinals: top-seeded Novak Djokovic.
Djokovic has won all 13 of their previous meetings, so you don't like Cilic's chances of repeating as champion if he has to defeat the best player in the world in order to get there.
Match stats courtesy of USOpen.org.
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