Wawrinka makes US Open last eight

French Open champion Stan Wawrinka has defeated US comeback king Donald Young 6-4 1-6 6-3 6-4 to reach the US Open quarter-finals.

The Swiss fifth seed will next face the winner of British third seed Andy Murray’s match with South African 15th seed Kevin Anderson.

Wawrinka dropped his first set of the tournament on Monday but made an eighth quarter-final in his past nine Grand Slams, denying 68th-ranked Young his first trip to a Slam quarter-final.

“The set was so quick. I wasn’t there mentally,” Wawrinka said of his second-set letdown.

“Calmed down a little bit. I began to be more aggressive, started moving my feet better.”

Young was the first player since Gilles Muller in 2008 to rally twice from two sets down in a US Open, having been 0-17 in such sets before this week, but the lefthander fell to 3-18 against top-10 opponents.

“He had the crowd. It was a tough match for sure,” Wawrinka said. “It was a great atmosphere.”

Wawrinka improved to 2-1 in the rivalry with Young, who upset the Swiss in a fifth-set tie-breaker at the 2011 US Open and Wawrinka beating him six weeks later at Shanghai.

Wawrinka, 30, smacked a backhand service return winner to break Young for a 2-1 edge and denied the American’s only break chance of the first set with a forehand winner in the fourth game.

Young, 26, had lost the first set in every prior match, too, and he bounced back again as Wawrinka netted forehands to surrender breaks in the fourth and sixth games, smashing his racquet to the cement at one stage in frustration.

“Sometimes you don’t control yourself. You need to put the pressure out,” Wawrinka said. “I played really well after.”

Wawrinka raced ahead 5-0 in the third set. Young battled back to 5-3 but Wawrinka then held on a stunning running backhand winner to finally take the set.

He broke Young to open the fourth set and held serve to the end, which came after two hours and nine minutes.

Swiss second seed Roger Federer, winner of a record 17 Grand Slam titles, was set to face US 13th seed John Isner in the late Monday match at Arthur Ashe Stadium.

Federer, trying to become at 34 the oldest US Open champion since Ken Rosewall in 1970, has a 4-1 career edge on Isner and has won 12 consecutive US Open matches over American foes since losing to Andre Agassi in 2001.

Isner, 30, has held in 93 consecutive US Open service games since last broken by Germany’s Philipp Kohlschreiber in the third round in 2013, including all 54 last year and 39 so far this year.

Murray, the 2012 US Open and 2013 Wimbledon champion, was to meet Anderson at Louis Armstrong Stadium, where Czech sixth seed Tomas Berdych and French 12th seed Richard Gasquet, both past US Open semi-finalists, were set to follow.

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