Tennis: Carlos Alcaraz surged into the fourth round of the US Open on Friday as American hopes of ending the country’s 22-year wait for a men’s champion suffered a blow with the injury exit of sixth seed Ben Shelton. Spanish second seed Alcaraz breezed past Italian 32nd seed Luciano Darderi with a 6-2, 6-4, 6-0 victory and on Sunday will play France’s Arthur Rinderknech. The Spaniard needed a medical timeout while leading 5-4 in the second set for treatment on his right knee, but later said he had no injury concerns.
But while Alcaraz was able to shrug off his knee issue, a shoulder injury scuppered Ben Shelton’s hopes of becoming the first American man to win the US Open since Andy Roddick in 2003. The big-serving Shelton, a semi-finalist at Flushing Meadows in 2023, departed the Louis Armstrong Stadium court in tears after being forced to retire at the end of the fourth set of his match against French veteran Adrian Mannarino. In other men’s draw action, Czech 20th seed Jiri Lehecka sailed into the next round with a 6-4, 6-4, 6-4 defeat of Belgium’s Raphael Collignon.