No surprises in US Open tennis

In the men's draw in New York, the top four seeds were still standing going into the first weekend of the two-week event, the last Grand Slam tennis tournament of the year.

The third-round matches featured top seed Novak Djokovic of Serbia who beat Sam Querrey of the US in three sets on Saturday afternoon 6-3, 6-2, 6-2. Other third round ties for the top seeds were Switzerland's Roger Federer against Spain's Marcel Granollers, Stan Wawrinka versus Slovenia's Blaz Kavcic and David Ferrer against France's Gilles Simon. Former champion Andy Murray, seeded eighth, beat Russia's Andrey Kuznetsov in four sets on Saturday afternoon, 6-1, 7-5, 4-6, 6-2.

Germany's Philipp Kohlschreiber, seeded 22nd, was drawn against hard-serving John Isner for his Saturday match. Kohlschreiber had beaten the American in their last two US Open matches - also in the third round - although Isner leads their career head-to-head matches 4-2.

In the women's draw, Swiss 17-year-old Belinda Bencic (photo) toppled sixth-seeded German Angelique Kerber 6-1, 7-5 in their third round match on Friday. Bencic is coached by Melanie Molitor, the mother of former champion Martina Hingis. Bencic, the 2013 Wimbledon and French Open junior champion, is ranked 58th in the world, and will next play former world No. 1 Jelena Jankovic, a 6-1, 6-0 winner over Sweden's Johanna Larsson.

Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark beat 18th seed Andrea Petkovic in the third round, 6-3, 6-2. She meets Maria Sharapova in the fourth round.

Sharapova came through with a 6-2, 6-4 victory over Germany's 26th seed, Sabine Lisicki, in a match on Friday that finished after midnight with nine breaks of serve and 52 unforced errors from the two players. "It was a really tough opponent I had today, a very aggressive, big server," Sharapova said. "I just tried to concentrate on my return, I wasn't serving as well as I wanted to."

World No. 2 Simona Halep and two-time champion Venus Williams both tumbled out of the tournament on Friday. Mona Barthel failed to get past the US player Varvara Lepchenko, who in turn fell to top seed Serena Williams in two sets on Saturday 3-6, 3-6. Third seed Petra Kvitova was beaten Saturday by Aleksandra Krunic, ranked 145 in the world in two sets: 6-4, 6-4.

"She played really unbelievable tennis and she put a lot of balls back ... almost all of them," said Kvitova, a two-time Wimbledon champion. "I was trying to fight and fighting every point, but it was so difficult. It wasn't really my day."

jm/mkg (Reuters, AFP)