US Open: Osaka shown the exit door

Washington: Osaka’s title defense at the U.S. Open was over in the third round with a 5-7, 6-7 (2), 6-4 loss Friday night to Leylah Fernandez, an 18-year-old from Canada who is ranked 73rd and never had been this far in Grand Slam competition.

Osaka was not at her best. She left the court with a white towel draped over her head after the second set and never really got her game going the rest of the way.

Romania’s twice Grand Slam winner Simona Halep outlasted Kazakhstan’s Elena Rybakina 7-6(11), 4-6, 6-3 in a dramatic third-round showdown at the U.S. Open on Friday.

Twelfth seed Halep saved four set points before converting on her seventh courtesy of a double fault by Rybakina in an epic, 18-minute first-set tiebreak in front of a rapt and roaring crowd inside Louis Armstrong Stadium.

Spanish 18-year-old Carlos Alcaraz stunned Greek third seed Stefanos Tsitsipas on Friday at the US Open, becoming the youngest man into the fourth round at New York in 32 years.

Alcaraz outlasted the French Open runner-up 6-3, 4-6, 7-6 (7/2), 0-6, 7-6 (7/5) to reach the last 16 at a Grand Slam for the first time, denying Tsitsipas his first fourth-round US Open appearance.

Alexander Zverev thrashed Spain’s Albert Ramos-Vinolas 6-1, 6-0, 6-3 in 74 minutes on Thursday as he rolled through to the US Open third round.