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Margot Jordan/Margot Jordan Photography/ALOST

 

akoiki-passport2 – by Adesina O. Koiki
A Lot of Sports Talk editor-in-chief

 

NEW YORK — The two night matches that featured at the US Open on Tuesday included a blowout, a close shave, and…an actual shave. We are not talking about hairstyles with the results at least, but, somehow, hair is heavily involved. More later.

Tuesday marked the beginning of the quarterfinal round of the US Open, which means dreams of making a breakthrough at a major start to come into much clearer focus for those able to advance. Only one of the eight players who took the Arthur Ashe Stadium court was an American, and No. 12 seed Coco Gauff was one of the more impressive players who made their way to the final eight. However, she ran into the player who impressed the most in her venture to the quarterfinals, and it was No. 17 seed Frenchwoman Caroline Garcia who powered her way past Gauff in straight sets to advance to the semifinals. Garcia, who has now secured 30 main draw wins since the beginning of June, has yet to drop a set in the tournament and is on a high after her win at the WTA Premier 1000 event in Cincinnati a couple of weeks prior to the start of proceedings in Flushing Meadows.

In the nightcap at Ashe, No. 23 Nick Kyrgios came in as the prohibitive favorite against Russia’s Karen Khachanov, but the mercurial Australian could not follow up his big win against world No. 1 Daniil Medvedev as Khachanov prevailed in five sets. While the aces (30 for Kyrgios, 31 for Khachanov) and antics (Kyrgios slamming two racquets on the court after the postgame handshake) were expected, what occurred in the second row courtside ended up stealing the show for a few minutes.

Two spectators, one who was later identified as YouTuber JiDion, were thrown out of the stadium after they staged a prank in which JiDion was being given haircut. Hair-raising indeed.

Tomorrow will feature more quarterfinal action, including American Frances Tiafoe attempting to become the first American to appear in the semifinals of the US Open since Andy Roddick back in 2006.

*Editor’s note: Above the byline is the photo gallery from Tuesday’s Day 9 action, with all photos taken by contributing photographer Margot Jordan. After clicking on the first photo to enlarge the picture, make sure to press the left and right arrow buttons to scroll through the rest of the pictures. There are currently 30 pictures in total.

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Tags : 2022 US OpenCaroline GarciaCoco GauffKaren KhachanovNick KyrgiosUS Open

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