Australian grand slam hopefuls Ashleigh Barty and Casey Dellacqua are through to the semi-finals of the US Open women’s doubles in New York.
Barty and Dellacqua powered past Russian second seed Ekaterina Makarova and Elena Vesnina 6-2 6-3 on Wednesday to move into the last four.
The Aussie double act are looking to go one better than losing finals showings at the Australian Open and Wimbledon.
In the singles draw French eighth seed Richard Gasquet reached his first US Open semi-final with a rollercoaster 6-3 6-1 4-6 2-6 6-4 win over David Ferrer, the Spanish fourth seed.
Gasquet, whose only previous appearance in the last four at a major was at Wimbledon in 2007, is the first Frenchman to get to the semi-finals in New York since Cedric Pioline in 1999.
It was only his second win in 10 meetings with Ferrer, a series which had also seen him claim just two sets out of 20.
Next up could be a clash with world number two Rafael Nadal, against whom he has lost all 10 meetings as a professional, although he did beat the great Spaniard in their junior days.
In the women’s, Flavia Pennetta made it to her first grand slam semi-final and climbed back on top of Italy’s competitive tennis ladder by defeating 10th-seeded Roberta Vinci 6-4 6-1.
Back in 2009, the 31-year-old Pennetta became the first Italian woman to crack the top 10. But she fell out of the spotlight in her country’s tennis scene after the emergence of Vinci and Sara Errani, combined with a wrist injury that sidelined her during the end of last season.
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Pennetta came into Flushing Meadows ranked 83rd, but will leave with victories over both of Italy’s top players.
After her win over Vinci, a longtime friend and former doubles partner, the Italians met at the net and hugged. Vinci gave Pennetta a kiss on the cheek and told her, “Brava.”
“It’s amazing,” Pennetta said. “I am really happy. I cannot believe it. It was really tough today to play against Roberta. It’s really difficult.”
This was Pennetta’s fourth straight win over a seeded opponent – a run that began with a 6-3 6-1 win over fourth-seeded Errani and also included a victory over No.27 seed Svetlana Kuznetsova, the 2004 US Open champion.
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