Rafael Nadal ceded a two-set lead to Fabio Fognini to get knocked out in the third round. Photo / AP
Rafael Nadal ceded a two-set lead to Fabio Fognini to get knocked out in the third round. Photo / AP
Two-time champion Rafael Nadal crashed to his earliest US Open exit in 10 years yesterday when Italy's Fabio Fognini pulled off a sensational 3-6 4-6 6-4 6-3 6-4 third-round victory.
The stunning result confirmed the decline of the 14-time major winner, who until yesterday had won 151 grand slam matches when he had taken the first two sets.
Nadal will also finish the season without a grand slam title for the first time since 2004. It was the 15th defeat of his miserable year, which has seen him beat just two top-10 players and his best performances at the majors were quarter-final runs at the Australian and French Opens.
Fognini, the 32nd seed, will face Spain's Feliciano Lopez for a place in the quarter-finals.
"It was very tough," said Fognini, who saved 11-of-19 break points.
"It was an incredible match to come from two sets down against Rafa, who is one of the best players in the world."
The best at the moment is top seed Novak Djokovic, who defeated Italy's Andreas Seppi for the 11th time in 11 meetings to reach the fourth round. The 2011 champion won 6-3 7-5 7-5 to inch closer to a sixth final in New York.
Serena Williams reacts after winning a point against Bethanie Mattek-Sands. Photo / AP
Djokovic will face Spain's Roberto Bautista Agut for a place in the quarter-finals.
Joining him in the fourth round is defending champion Marin Cilic, who took more than four hours to beat Kazakh Mikhail Kukushkin 6-7 (7-5) 7-6 (7-1) 6-3 6-7 (7-3) 6-1.
In the women's draw, Serena Williams kept alive her pursuit of a calendar-year grand slam but had to come back from losing the first set.
Eight times this season at major tournaments, Williams has dropped the opening set. Eight times, she has won. She eventually emerged to grab the last eight games for a 3-6 7-5 6-0 victory over Bethanie Mattek-Sands and will now take on 19th-seeded Madison Keys.
"I'm not trying to live on the edge," Williams said with a smile.
She is trying to become the first player since Steffi Graf in 1988 to win all four grand slam tournaments in the same year and first woman since Chris Evert in 1975-78 to win four US Opens in a row. Also making it to the fourth round is Canada's Eugenie Bouchard, who beat 2014 Australian Open finalist Dominika Cibulkova 7-6 (11-9) 4-6 6-3 and will face Italy's Roberta Vinci in the round of 16.
Bouchard later teamed up with controversial Australian Nick Kyrgios to beat Ukraine's Elina Svitolina and New Zealand's Artem Sitak 5-7 6-3 (10-3) in the mixed doubles.
New Zealand's Marcus Daniell and Briton Jonathan Marray were beaten by Philipp Oswald (Austria) and Adil Shamasdin (Canada) 6-4 4-6 6-7 (3) and a tiebreak was the undoing of Kiwi Michael Venus and Mate Pavic from Croatia, who went down 6-3 6-7 (9) 7-6 (7) to 12th seeds Pierre-Hughers Herbert and Nicolas Mahut of France.
