Once Again, Late Burst Propels Spotlight Grabber Into the Next Round

Saturday's matches at Arthur Ashe Stadium began around 11:10 a.m., about 10 hours after Rafael Nadal and Fabio Fognini departed it.

The stadium had been meticulously cleaned and was mostly empty. There were no echoes of "Vamos!" or "Forza!" remaining from another memorable night session at the U.S. Open, when, for the first time in more than 10 years, Nadal lost a match after winning the first two sets.

But it was fun to imagine which of the scuff marks on the Ashe court Saturday morning could be evidence of one of Fognini's scorching forehands or footprints of a long rally from the 3 hour, 46 minute slugfest that ended at 1:27 a.m.

Still, it was a new day at the Open, a time for someone else to step into the spotlight.

That someone was Donald Young.

Before this tournament, Young, a former teenage prodigy who recently turned 26, was 0-17 in matches in which he lost the first two sets. Then in the first round he rallied from a two-sets-to-none deficit to defeat No. 11 Gilles Simon, a match he said he would not have won in his days as the great young hope of U.S. tennis.

On Saturday, in his third-round match against No. 22 Viktor Troicki, Young again lost the first two sets. He lost the second, 6-0, winning only 13 points, and needed medical treatment on his back when it was over.

But he was not ready to concede.

"I felt like I still had more to give," Young said, adding: "I was going to give it. If that was enough, I would win."

In front of an overflow crowd at the Grandstand, Young absorbed the electricity from the fans and won, 4-6, 0-6, 7-6 (3), 6-2, 6-4. He closed it out with a forehand winner down the line that set off a robust celebration.

"It was 90 percent you guys, 10 percent me," Young told the fans in a post-match interview.

Young matched his best result in a Grand Slam event by reaching the round of 16. He will play No. 5 Stan Wawrinka, whom he beat in five sets the last time they played at the Open, in 2011.

"More matches, more money. It's a lot of things to fight for," Young said. "I've kind of had a lot of times when I didn't fight. I've done that. Why keep doing that? Do something else."

Young's match was one of the last main-draw singles matches to be scheduled on the Grandstand, which is expected to be torn down and replaced by a new, bigger court next year.

"Once the crowd gets going, you start playing better," Young said. "It's almost like the other guy's playing two versus one. They jump on him, boo him if he's taking an extra five seconds, lifting you up, getting a rub on the back. It's an awesome feeling."

Victoria Azarenka felt the same way about the crowd in Ashe Stadium during her 7-5, 2-6, 6-4 victory over Angelique Kerber, a worthy successor to Fognini-Nadal, with its go-for-broke shot-making.

"To see support for both players, really pushing us, motivating us to get even better at the matches, is absolutely fantastic," Azarenka said.

She did plenty of self-motivating, consulting funny notes in her bag during changeovers to keep loose. But Azarenka said that as she worked her way back from injuries what she missed most was the intensity of battle.

For nearly three hours, No. 20 Azarenka and No. 11 Kerber traded winners and fist-pumping, arm-raising exhortations.

Azarenka had 51 winners to Kerber's 46. There were 52  rallies of nine shots or more, nearly evenly split, with Kerber's taking 27 and Azarenka 25. There were eight games with 10 points or more. Kerber saved five match points in a 16-point game at 3-5 in the third set.

"She was pushing me, I was pushing her," Azarenka said.

Azarenka will next play Varvara Lepchenko, a 29-year-old American, who advanced to the fourth round of the Open for the first time with a 1-6, 6-3, 6-4 victory over Mona Barthel.

Lepchenko is the fourth American woman in the round of 16, and for a change they will be joined by two U.S. men.

John Isner is in the fourth round with Young, making it the first time since 2012 that two U.S. men have advanced to the second week of the Open.

Isner defeated Jiri Vesely, who retired after losing the first two sets, 6-3, 6-4. Vesely is the 16th retirement in singles, and the 14th on the men's side.

Like Young, Isner, the No. 13 seed, will be playing a Swiss star in the round of 16. He will face Roger Federer in their first match at the Open since 2007.

"Absolutely no pressure on me that day, and I honestly probably didn't believe I could beat him, either," Isner said of that 6-7 (4), 6-2, 6-4, 6-2 third-round loss. "I was happy to be on that court.

"I was fresh out of college, and no one knew anything about me. He certainly didn't. I won one set, which was incredible."

Federer, the No. 2 seed, enters the second week having not lost a set after topping No. 29 Philipp Kohlschreiber, 6-3, 6-4, 6-4.

His week has been so relaxed that he is spending his off days as a tourist. He has gone to the Metropolitan Museum of Art and has seen "Hamilton" and "Finding Neverland" on Broadway.

Third-seeded Andy Murray won the final match of Saturday night, beating 30th-seeded Thomaz Bellucci, 6-3, 6-2, 7-5. Murray will face 15th-seeded Kevin Anderson in the fourth round, as Anderson beat 20th-seeded Dominic Thiem in straight sets.

Fifth-seeded Petra Kvitova, who was found to have mononucleosis last month, had been spending most off days resting at her hotel and has also conserved energy on court, playing for a total of only 3 hours, 15 minutes after dispatching Anna Karolina Schmiedlova, 6-2, 6-1.

Kvitova said that she was avoiding the locker room as much as possible, which may be wise. Andrea Petkovic needed medical attention during her match against Johanna Konta for what she said was a cold that had hit many players.

Konta, ranked 97th, followed her upset of No. 9 Garbine Muguruza by ousting No. 18 Petkovic, 7-6 (2), 6-3. It was her 16th win in a row and she is in the second week of a Grand Slam tournament for the first time.

Konta, 24, is the second qualifier to reach the fourth round, after 152nd-ranked Anett Kontaveit, who will play Venus Williams on Sunday. Kontaveit is the lowest-ranked woman remaining in the tournament after No. 154 Shelby Rogers lost to second-seeded Simona Halep, 6-2, 6-3.