TENNIS US OPEN – Our Giulio Gasparin has selected the best quotes from Day 5 at Flushing Meadows. Kvitova, Krunic, Djokovic, Murray and Kohlschreiber. UBITENNIS.COM WILL BE OFFLINE DUE TO ESSENTIAL MAINTENANCE ON MONDAY 1ST SEPTEMBER BETWEEN 02.00 CEST AND 06.00 CEST
US Open: All the interviews, results, draws and OoP
Petra Kvitova was reluctantly the protagonist of the biggest upset of the day, as she suffered a double 6-4 loss to Serbian qualifier Aleksandra Krunic.
The Serb played an unbelievable match and, even though Petra was guilty of too many errors, the Wimbledon champion gave all the credits to her.
“I think she played really unbelievable tennis and she put a lot of balls back,” she said. “Almost all of them. For me it was very difficult just, you know, to play only on the winners.
“I think really she was really great moving on the court. I mean, she served well in the important points as, she pushed a lot of balls back and it was difficult for me then.”
Krunic, who said to have been rooting for Kvitova during the Wimbledon final, was extremely happy during the press conference, showing, however, great humility.
“I didn’t feel so much pressure,” said the qualifier. “Maybe because, you know, I’m an outsider, I’m from the qualifyings, and, you know, I don’t have a pressure from the beginning since I step on the court.
“When I don’t put the extra pressure on myself it’s just much easier for me, you know, not to think about the crowd and anyone. Because I was trying to take the positive things from the crowd. I didn’t expect that so many people would cheer for me.”
Obviously, there is quite some surprise for her as well, knowing that she will now play the fourth round.
“When I pass the quallies,” she admitted, “I felt like, Okay, it’s a new tournament for me.
“Now I’m in the second week of a Grand Slam. I don’t know. I still cannot believe I won against Madison [Keys], and now I won against Petra.
“Today I think I pushed myself to my total limits. Even I know that it was not Petra’s best day and she missed a lot. I don’t know if I made her miss with my game or not.
“But still, you know, if she would have played her best tennis I don’t think the outcome would be the same, as I said. But I tried to keep the tactics that I have been given. Yeah, that was my only chance.”
The young qualifier said to be quite a friend of fellow Serbians Jelena Jankovic and to have recently kicked Novak Djokovic out of the quite room before one of her matches.
The top seed, after his comfortable win over Sam Querry said: “I hope she kicks me out every single day so she keeps on winning, if that’s the lucky charm”
The Serbian champion then added about his game, which seemed to be getting back after a pretty sub-par summer: “What is supposed to go on in my game? It’s peaking at the right time, at the right tournament. This is where I want to play my best tennis. I haven’t done as well as I wanted in leadup tournaments, Toronto and Cincinnati.”
Andy Murray needed an extra set to close his match against Andrey Kuznetsov 6-1, 7-5, 4-6, 6-2.
The Scot felt like his game was getting better and tonight he had no struggling with cramps.
“Today was much better than Monday. It was obviously cooler today. May have been a little bit more humid. I’m not sure. It felt pretty humid on the court. It was quite cool actually by the end of the match.
“I hope it’s not a problem for the rest of the tournament. Like I said before the tournament started, you know, I feel like I’m in very good shape.”
For the third year in a row, Philipp Kohschreiber upset in the third round of this very Slam John Isner, who said good bye to the tournament without being broken once.
“Yeah, it’s a little bit crazy to play three years in a row in the same round,” said the German. “It was so far very well for me. Happy with the performance. For sure it was mental advantage for me I think that I always won over a long distance.”
