Recap US Open 2024 Day Eight (Monday 2 September) as Muchova and Draper shine, Sinner and Swiatek live up to billing

The number of matches might be getting smaller by the day, but the quality certainly isn’t dropping off, so let’s see what happened on a very interesting Day 8 of the US Open.

As we get closer and closer to the final days, we’re gonna have fewer and fewer matches, but the quality of matches should rise. With each match that gets us closer to the final, we get players that have played on a very high level to even find themselves in these stages of the event.

Yesterday, on Day 8 (Monday 2 September), we had lots of interesting tennis matches matchup-wise, but the matches were pretty non-competitive for the most part.

On the ATP side, the first match we saw was Tomáš Macháč taking on Jack Draper. Plenty of people expected this one to be really close because we had two players who were playing really well at the moment, but it wouldn’t be close at all. Draper has been in amazing form recently, and he certainly took it to Macháč, beating him in three very simple sets. Macháč is a very streaky player, and he does tend to have off days.

Today wasn’t so much of an off day as it was just Draper playing super solid tennis and not giving him anything in the match. The Czech player had some nice moments, but for the most part was outmatched by Draper, who is seemingly poised to go really deep. Everything is just clicking in his tennis, from the serve to the baseline play, and at his best, he’s always been a super tricky player to play against.

The second match on the ATP side was Daniil Medvedev taking on Nuno Borges. The Portuguese player barely won the previous match and was quite lucky to do so, but he’s certainly a tricky player who didn’t make this round of a Grand Slam by chance. He’s a quality player, but against Medvedev, he looked very overmatched.

If you didn’t think the Russian could win the US Open before this match, you probably do so after this match because he destroyed Borges comfortably in three sets. The match had a bit of excitement in the final set, but overall it wasn’t a very close match because it was clear that these players were not on the same level at all. Medvedev will remain the biggest threat to Sinner if he keeps playing this way because none of the other players are playing on a level that seems close.

The third match of the day was a match between Australians Alex de Minaur and Jordan Thompson. Some have speculated whether Thompson could deliver an upset here, and in fairness, there was a chance for it, but he needed to play much better than he did overall. It wasn’t a very good showing from the Australian, who had a dreadful opening set and only semi-recovered from that.

It was the sturdiest performance from de Minaur yet. He remained aggressive but cleaned up the mistakes from previous matches for an overall solid display that was very hard to overcome. Thompson had a lead in the 4th set and could have pushed the match into a decider but couldn’t quite deliver on that, so de Minaur was able to escape in four sets. He’d be happy about that because, as we know, he’s still dealing with that hip injury, so this run overall has been very impressive in light of that.

The final match on the men’s side was between Jannik Sinner and Tommy Paul. It wasn’t the most complicated match for Sinner overall, but there were some tricky moments in there. He started poorly, making a lot of mistakes in the first few games and falling behind 1-4. The comeback after that was special, though, as Sinner once again proved that out of all the players here, his level peaks the highest.

After pulling out that opening set, Sinner struggled a bit to break through against Paul, who ultimately played his best set of tennis in the second set and had a lead in the tiebreak of that set, but Sinner again rallied and won it. The final set was largely a non-contest because the American fell apart after losing his serve early. Overall, just another sturdy performance from Sinner, who keeps looking like the player most likely to walk away with the trophy.

On the women’s side, we had a couple of very interesting matches as well. It started with Karolína Muchová taking on Jasmine Paolini as the Italian was trying to make a 3rd Grand Slam final in a row. She would take an early lead, but as the match went on, Muchová was playing better and better and ultimately was able to turn around the match. The Czech player is a former Grand Slam finalist, and she’s slowly finding that level again. She’ll be a name to watch if she keeps playing this year.

The second match saw Jessica Pegula and Diana Shnaider. They faced each other in Toronto, and Pegula was able to win the match, and today was no exception. It was probably even easier overall because Shnaider didn’t really play her best tennis today. Pegula remains in peak shape, and she seems like the player who could possibly disrupt the plans of Świątek and Sabalenka, who have by far looked like the best players in New York so far.

The 3rd match was a very interesting contest between Caroline Wozniacki and Beatriz Haddad Maia. Wozniacki was playing a vintage event, but she couldn’t really muster up her best tennis against the Brazilian, who is a really solid player on her day.

Haddad Maia did drop a set and looked uncomfortable at times, but she was able to handle the matchup pretty well. Wozniacki had a bit of an easy draw, and Haddad Maia was by far the toughest player she had to face all event, and she immediately stumbled. The final match on the women’s side of the draw was between Iga Świątek and Liudmila Samsonova. It’s an interesting matchup because the Russian is very streaky and at times can be really tough to play.

That was in the opening set, where she kind of hung on with Świątek for a good amount before finally getting broken. After Świątek took that opening set 6-4, she largely cruised in the second one as Samsonova lost her level. So overall, it was a pretty interesting day, though most of the matches were straightforward.

We didn’t get any epics, but it was still a really good day of tennis with a really high-level display at times. Stick with us for all the daily updates of the US Open, and make sure you check out our preview for today’s day.