By HOWARD FENDRICH
AP Tennis Writer
NEW YORK (AP) — Canadian teenager Denis Shapovalov got a little taste of late-night life at the U.S. Open along the way to knocking off No. 8-seeded Jo-Wilfried Tsonga.
During the 69th-ranked Shapovalov's 6-4, 6-4, 7-6 (3) victory under the lights in Arthur Ashe Stadium on Wednesday night that put him in the third round of a Grand Slam tournament for the first time, the 18-year-old qualifier said he chatted a bit with some, um, overzealous spectators.
"I noticed a couple of guys had a little bit too much to drink. I mean, some of them were standing and, like, just talking to me as if we're buddies. I was up a break in one game, I think it was probably 40-15, I just miss a backhand. (One fan is) like, `Aaaaah. No!' I'm like, `Don't worry, man. I got this,'" Shapovalov recounted with a smile.
"I mean, I was just taking it all in," he continued.
"Like I said, it's a dream come true to play a night match over here on Arthur Ashe. So for me, it was fun. Obviously it's not easy to play under these conditions. But I managed to put a positive spin on it."
Shapovalov is almost exactly 14 years younger than Tsonga, a Frenchman who was the runner-up at the 2008 Australian Open.
This is part of quite a run for Shapovalov, who earlier this month beat Rafael Nadal on a hard court in Montreal while becoming the youngest semifinalist at a Masters tournament.
Shapovalov's first major tournament came last month at Wimbledon, where he lost in the first round. He was the junior champion at the All England Club a year ago.
The only near-slip for Shapovalov against Tsonga came in the third set, when the left-hander served for the match at 5-4 and got broken for the first time all match.
But Shapovalov steadied himself and came through in the tiebreaker, finishing with 28 winners to 19 unforced errors.
"I don't think I was always mentally solid as I am today. I've been working extremely hard on it. ... I think it's improved quite a bit," he said. "It also helps I've been in these situations constantly, playing these top guys. ... It's a little bit easier the second time around and third time around. You get used to these situations."
Next up for Shapovalov is a match against Kyle Edmund of Britain. When they faced each other in the Davis Cup in February, Shapovalov was defaulted and fined $7,000 for hitting a ball in anger that struck the chair umpire in the face and broke a bone under his left eye.
That episode, Shapovalov said, "definitely helped me mature."
Then he added: "But I don't think this match has anything to do with it. I've apologized constantly before, and I continue to apologize for my actions. It's something I have to live with. But for me it's in the past and I'm a different person and a different player now. So it's a completely new match."
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By HOWARD FENDRICH
AP Tennis Writer
NEW YORK (AP) — No one, not even Maria Sharapova herself, knew quite what to expect from her return to Grand Slam tennis at the U.S. Open.
It had been 19 months since she had entered a major tournament. She played only nine times anywhere since a 15-month doping suspension ended in April. Two three-set tussles into her stay at Flushing Meadows, it's clear that Sharapova's game might be patchy, but she is as capable as ever of coming up with big strokes in big moments - and maybe, just maybe, could stick around for a while in a depleted draw that's already missing four of the top seven seeded women.
Sharapova became the first woman into the third round at the U.S. Open by using 12 aces to help set aside a poor start and coming back to beat Timea Babos of Hungary 6-7 (4), 6-4, 6-1 on Wednesday in Arthur Ashe Stadium.
"Look, I certainly have expectations, just because I know I've been in these stages before and I've been able to execute. There's a certain level of `I know I can do this. I've done it before. I want to have that feeling again,'" Sharapova said. "But there's also the realistic understanding of, `OK, you haven't been in this situation for a while. It's going to take a little time.' Of course, managing expectations is part of it, learning as you play the matches, which is something I haven't done for a long time."
Her victory was the highlight of a busy day that featured 87 singles matches on the schedule after rain washed out most play a day earlier. With so many matches going on, there were plenty of names to keep tabs on - and quite a few surprises. The most noteworthy second-round departures came at night: No. 4 Alexander Zverev and No. 8 Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in the men's bracket, and No. 5 Caroline Wozniacki in the women's.
Zverev, never past the fourth round at a major, was beaten 3-6, 7-5, 7-6 (1), 7-6 (4) by fellow 20-year-old Borna Coric, and 2008 Australian Open finalist Tsonga put up little resistance while losing 6-4, 6-4, 7-6 (3) to 18-year-old Canadian qualifier Denis Shapovalov. Two-time U.S. Open runner-up Wozniacki's 6-2, 6-7 (5), 6-1 exit against 40th-ranked Ekaterina Makarova followed first-round losses by No. 2 Simona Halep, No. 6 Angelique Kerber and No. 7 Johanna Konta.
"It's upsetting. Today was upsetting," Zverev said, perhaps summing up others' feelings, too. "The way I played was upsetting."
Past U.S. Open champions advancing included Venus Williams and Marin Cilic into the third round, and Juan Martin del Potro and Svetlana Kuznetsova - who saved three match points - into the second. No. 14 Nick Kyrgios, No. 22 Fabio Fognini, No. 26 Richard Gasquet and No. 27 Pablo Cuevas all lost their openers.
In the early going, it looked as if Sharapova might join them on the way out.
She made 19 unforced errors in the first set, which ended with her missing twice on forehands to give the 59th-ranked Babos the lead. But as the match went on, Sharapova looked more and more like someone who used to be ranked No. 1 and owns five major titles - including the 2006 U.S. Open - than someone who needed a wild-card invitation from the U.S. Tennis Association because she is now 146th, on account of her ban and lack of play.
Sharapova last participated in a major tournament at the 2016 Australian Open, where she tested positive for the newly banned heart drug meldonium. She declined to answer a reporter's question about how frequently she's been drug-tested this year.
Babos said she thought it was "a little bit unfair for the other players" that Sharapova was let into the field, a sentiment echoed by No. 20 seed CoCo Vandeweghe of the U.S., who would have preferred that an American get that wild card.
But here Sharapova is, and she does not appear ready to be an easy out.
"Towards the end of the second set, I felt like I was the fresher player. Going into a third set, that's a good position or a good feeling to have," said the 30-year-old Russian, who wore a strip of black tape on the left forearm that bothered her earlier in the month.
She also had a sleeve on her right elbow, which she said was to keep that arm warm.
Sharapova cut down her miscues to 12 unforced errors in the second set, then just five in the third, and finished with a 39-13 advantage in winners, looking as strong as she did while eliminating No. 2 seed Simona Halep in a three-set thriller in Ashe on Monday.
"I definitely wanted to enjoy the quality of tennis that I played with the other night," Sharapova said, "but I also wanted to put my mind onto this one."
She already has spent nearly 5 hours on court, and so perhaps the yelling and fist-pumping she showed at the end against Babos were as much a reflection of a sense of relief as celebration.
If 14 return winners were a key to getting past Halep, it was Sharapova's serving that really made a difference down the stretch against Babos: She won 16 of the last 19 points she served.
"In key moments, she showed why, no matter what happened to her, why she is a big player and good player," Babos said, "because she came up with some very, very good shots and she didn't miss her opportunities."
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By HOWARD FENDRICH
AP Tennis Writer
NEW YORK (AP) — Seems fair to conclude that No. 4-seeded Alexander Zverev found his 3-6, 7-5, 7-6 (1), 7-6 (4) upset loss to Borna Coric in the U.S. Open's second round Wednesday night rather, well, upsetting.
"It's upsetting. Today was upsetting," Zverev said. "The way I played was upsetting. The tournament so far is upsetting for me."
The 20-year-old German is the highest-ranked man to exit Flushing Meadows so far and what bothered him so much was not merely that he didn't play well but that there was a real opportunity for him to have a true Grand Slam breakthrough.
He was all too aware of that.
Because of the injury withdrawals by past champions Andy Murray, Novak Djokovic and Stan Wawrinka, Zverev was the highest-seeded man on the bottom side of the U.S. Open bracket.
"It's upsetting because the draw is pretty open in the bottom part. I felt like I should have been the favored there," Zverev said. "You know, I just played a very, very bad match, so it's unfortunate. But that's how it is."
He is widely considered the Next Big Thing in the sport, by virtue of his success outside of the majors: He has won five titles in 2017, including a pair of Masters tournaments.
That includes a victory over Roger Federer in the final of a hard-court event at Montreal this month.
"I know that I could have done some big things here. I know that I could have done something that I haven't done before," Zverev said. "But I won't. It's just as simple as that."
His Grand Slam record is not as impressive as what he's shown at lesser tournaments. He has made it as far as the fourth round at one of the four most prestigious sites in tennis only once, losing at that stage at Wimbledon in July.
Not that long ago, the 61st-ranked Coric was being spoken of in the same expectation-filled tones as Zverev.
Coric is only about five months older, and he actually beat Zverev in two previous encounters - in the U.S. Open junior event when they were 16, and at a professional tour event when they were 18.
Zverev's analysis of what went wrong this time: "I just played very, very bad in the second and third set. I should have won the third. I definitely should have won the fourth."
Toward the end of his news conference, Zverev - whose older brother, No. 23 Mischa, did make it to the third round in New York by eliminating Benoit Paire 6-3, 6-2, 3-6, 6-7 (3), 7-5 - was asked what he would need to happen for him to consider the rest of this season a success.
That did not go so well.
"I just lost (in) the second round of a major where I shouldn't have lost," he replied, "so I'm not thinking about the rest of the year."
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