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Another men's tennis star was eliminated from the U.S. Open on Monday. Third-seeded Andy Murray of Scotland was upset by 15th-seeded Kevin Anderson of South Africa 7-6, 3-6, 7-6, 7-6 in a fourth-round match on Labor Day in New York. On Friday, Spain's Rafael Nadal fell to Italy's Fabio Fognini in a third-round match.
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Anderson finished off the upset by blanking Murray in the fourth-set tiebreaker 7-0.
"I couldn't have asked for a better tiebreak, I wish I could play every tiebreak like that," Anderson said in his on-court interview afterward. "Beating Andy feels amazing."
Joining Anderson in the quarterfinals is second-ranked Roger Federer of Switzerland, a 7-6, 7-6, 7-5 winner over American John Isner.
Anderson advances to quarterfinals of a Grand Slam singles event for the first time in his career, and he will face fifth-seeded Stan Wawrinka of Switzerland, who ended the impressive run of unseeded Donald Young by beating the left-handed American 6-4, 1-6, 6-3, 6-4.
Meanwhile, Murray's run of reaching at least the quarterfinals in 18 consecutive Grand Slam events he entered came to an end. This was his earliest departure in a major since he was knocked out in the third round of the 2010 U.S. Open.
Murray had won all four of his matchups against Anderson since 2011, including both previous encounters this season. However, Murray was never able to gain control this time. Neither player broke serve in the first set, which was won by Anderson 7-5.
Anderson won the second set, and Murray won a tiebreaker in the third to push the match to a fourth set.
Murray led 6-5 in the fourth set and had a chance to break serve at 0-30 in the 12th game, but the 6-foot-7 South African held serve to force a tiebreaker, which he won easily.
France's Richard Gasquet topped the Czech Republic's Tomas Berdych 2-6, 6-3, 6-4, 6-1.
On the women's side, Victoria Azarenka of Belarus is starting to look like the player who took Serena Williams to three sets in the final at Flushing Meadows in 2012 and 2013.
On Monday, the 20th-ranked Azarenka eliminated 46th-ranked American Varvara Lepchenko 6-4, 6-3.
"My game was not really a problem. It was just being able to find your rhythm and find the way to apply that game on the certain moments in the tough situations," Azarenka said. "So I think that was more of -- I wouldn't say mental, but just more of a consistency."
Second-seeded Simona Halep of Romania rallied past 24th-seeded Sabine Lisicki 6-7, 7-5, 6-2 to make the quarterfinals. Fifth-seeded Petra Kvitova of Czech Republic topped Great Britain's Johanna Konta 7-5, 6-3, and 26th-seeded Flavia Pennetta of Italy eliminated Australia's Sam Stosur 6-4, 6-4.
