US Open Tennis 2017: TV Schedule, Picks for Saturday Afternoon Draw
Rafael Nadal is the star attraction in the afternoon session at the U.S. Open on Saturday, as the top seed seeks to march past Leonardo Mayer and into Round 4 of the prestigious tennis tournament.
The Spaniard will round off the afternoon stint, while the top seed in the women's draw, Karolina Pliskova, will get the day under way at the Arthur Ashe Stadium with a clash with Shuai Zhang. Those matches sandwich the meeting between Agnieszka Radwanska and CoCo Vandeweghe.
Elsewhere, the likes of Dominic Thiem and Elina Svitolina will take to the court early on Saturday in what promises to be an absorbing day.
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Read on for the schedule for Day 6 of the Grand Slam at Flushing Meadows, New York, where to catch the action and a look ahead to Saturday's standout matches.
Saturday Schedule, Selected Afternoon Matches
Arthur Ashe Stadium
(1) *Karolina Pliskova vs. (27) Shuai Zhang
(10) Agnieszka Radwanska vs. (20) *CoCo Vandeweghe
(1) *Rafael Nadal vs. Leonardo Mayer
Louis Armstrong Stadium
(30) Adrian Mannarino vs. (6) *Dominic Thiem
(12) *Jelena Ostapenko vs. Daria Kasatkina
(9) *David Goffin vs. (18) Gael Monfils
Grandstand
*Viktor Troicki vs. Alexandr Dolgopolov
(11) Roberto Bautista Agut vs. (24) *Juan Martin del Potro
(4) *Elina Svitolina vs. Shelby Rogers
*Picks to win
TV Info: ESPN (U.S.), Eurosport (UK)
For the order of play in full for Thursday, visit the U.S. Open website.
Saturday Preview
With no Andy Murray and no Novak Djokovic in the draw at Flushing Meadows, a tremendous opportunity has presented itself to Nadal to win his second Grand Slam of the season and his 16th overall.
There were times in his previous match against Taro Daniel when those hopes looked to be fading, though, particularly in the first set of the contest, when the 31-year-old was out of sorts by his own high standards.
Nadal regrouped and rallied for the remainder of the match, yet there's no doubt he'll need to show more against the talented Mayer. The man himself said he's looking forward to playing early in the day:
"It's true that I didn't play very well tonight, but at the same time it's true that I'm through to the next round," said the unflustered two-time champion after the win, per BBC Sport's Piers Newbery.
As we can see courtesy of Eurosport UK, on Thursday Nadal actually saved one of his better shots for after the match:
It'd be a surprise if he didn't find another level against Mayer; thoroughbred champions like the Spaniard tend to get better and better as the competition rolls on.
The top seed in the women's draw, Pliskova, doesn't know what it's like to get over the line in one of these Grand Slam tournaments. And we witnessed a few signs of nerves in her previous match, when home qualifier Nicole Gibbs swaggered to a brilliant win in the first set.
Pliskova was eventually able to recover, edging the remaining two narrow stanzas. As noted by Live Tennis, not only is she in a scrap to win this competition, she's in one to preserve her No. 1 spot, too:
Another highlight in the afternoon will include the showdown between Svitolina and Rogers. The former's game has been in excellent order on her way to Round 3, while the latter, inspired by the home crowd, has come through two pretty gruelling three-set matches.
Those on the Louis Armstrong Court on Saturday will be in for a treat. Thiem and Mannarino are both wonderful to watch, as is the French Open champion Ostapenko. Meanwhile, Goffin's meeting with Monfils is a tantalising mashup of styles and potentially the most entertaining clash of the day.
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