NEW YORK (AP) — The Latest on the U.S. Open tennis tournament (all times local):
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2:05 p.m.
Petra Kvitova erased a pair of match points and converted her fourth to edge Garbiñe Muguruza 5-7, 6-3, 7-6 (12-10) in a showdown between two-time major champions.
Kvitova reached the fourth round at Flushing Meadows for the seventh time. She last made it to the U.S. Open quarterfinals in 2017.
She kept coming back — after dropping the first set, after trailing 5-2 in the third, after being a point from defeat twice at 6-5.
Here’s how close this one was: Kvitova won 109 total points, Muguruza 108.
It took the new format final-set tiebreaker to determine the winner. The four Grand Slam tournaments agreed to adopt a uniform system this year, with the third sets of women’s matches and fifth sets of men’s decided by a first-to-10, win-by-two formula; the U.S. Open used to have the more traditional first-to-seven setup.
Kvitova, a left-hander who won Wimbledon in 2011 and 2014, overcame 12 double-faults with 14 aces and 50 total winners. She improved to 6-1 against No. 9 seed Muguruza, the champion at the French Open in 2016 and Wimbledon in 2017.
No. 21 Kvitova next will face No. 8 Jessica Pegula, who beat qualifier Yuan Yue 6-2, 6-7 (8), 6-0.
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11 a.m.
Serena Williams is gone from the U.S. Open, but the show must go on.
The third round is scheduled to wrap up Saturday at Flushing Meadows, with Grand Slam champions such as Rafael Nadal and Iga Swiatek in action at night.
Two other owners of multiple major titles will get things started in the morning in Louis Armstrong Stadium when Garbiñe Muguruza faces Petra Kvitova.
On Friday night, Williams — by far the biggest star of Week 1 at the year’s last Grand Slam tournament — lost what is expected to be the last match of her career. Ajla Tomljanovic beat her 7-5, 6-7 (4), 6-1 in front of a loud sellout crowd in Arthur Ashe Stadium.
The first match in Ashe on Saturday is due to begin at noon EDT, with No. 8 seed Jessica Pegula of the U.S. up against Yuan Yue of China.
They’ll be followed by No. 3 seed Carlos Alcaraz, who is 19, against unseeded American Jenson Brooksby, who is 21.
At night, Nadal takes a 17-0 head-to-head record into his matchup against Richard Gasquet in Ashe, while the top-ranked Swiatek meets American Lauren Davis in Armstrong.
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