NEW YORK—Fans were hanging over the rafters of the Grandstand chanting Jack Sock’s name, engaged by the tiebreak tug of war unfolding before them. Nicolas Almagro barely looked up at the spectators draped over the railing above—he was too busy making one last determined pull.
Roping a backhand winner down the line, Almagro concluded a grueling 7-6 (3), 6-7 (4), 7-6 (2), 6-1 victory over wild card Sock with a flourish, kissing his yellow-and-black Dunlop racquet after advancing to the fourth round of the U.S. Open for the first time in eight appearances.
The 11th-seeded Spaniard withstood the explosive young American, enthusiastic crowd, and exhausting heat in a match that saw the pair combine for 109 winners—56 from Sock and 53 by Almagro. In the end, the Spaniard’s experience, edge in fitness, and a brilliant backhand winner down the line in the third-set tiebreaker proved to the difference.
“It’s difficult because he is from USA, he is playing at home and I think I didn’t play my best tennis here today, but I won and now I begin to think about my next round,” Almagro told Malivai Washington in his on-court interview. “I think he was a little bit tired at the end of the third and finally I start to return a little bit better.”
This was a physically-punishing match between two big baseline hitters. Twenty minutes into the match, Sock’s infrared-colored adidas shirt was so saturated with sweat it stuck to his skin as if he’d taken a plunge into the dancing fountain. The 19-year-old slammed an overhead to earn double break point in the seventh game. Almagro wrong-footed the teenager with an inside-out forehand winner to save the first, and erased the second on a Sock error before holding for 4-3 on a slick forehand swing volley winner. Almagro’s depth drew errors as jumped out to a 5-1 lead in the breaker, reached set point with an ace, and closed the 51-minute first set when Sock floated a forehand long.
There’s a lot to like about the 243rd-ranked Sock’s game: He possesses an imposing serve, bold forehand, a soft touch around net—winning 25 of 30 trips there—and he showed some surprising swagger for a teenager playing just his sixth Grand Slam match.
Neither man managed a break point in the second set. Sock surprised Almagro with a forehand drop shot that the Spaniard got to, only to nudge a reply deep. Leading 4-2 in the tiebreaker, Sock bombed a service winner down the T for set point, and took the second set on the strength of 18 winners.
Almagro fought off three break points to hold in the opening game of the third set, then broke for 3-1. Sock, who was just one of 11 on break-point conversions, scored his lone break in the seventh game. Almagro dug out of a triple-break point hole, saving two break points on Sock errors and the third on a crackling body serve, eventually holding for 5-4.
Sock, who spent changeovers with an ice towel wrapped around his neck, took treatment for an arm injury after holding in the 10th game. Leading 2-1 in the third-set breaker, Sock hit a deep approach and seemed to be in an offensive position, but Almagro blistered a backhand pass down the line, part of a surge of six straight points that saw him snatch the third-set breaker.
Almagro, who broke three times in the fourth set, will face either Tomas Berdych or Sam Querrey next.
