NEW YORK — Taylor Townsend charged into the fourth round of a Grand Slam tournament for the first time, beating Sorana Cirstea, 7-5, 6-2, on Saturday at the U.S. Open.
Two days after upsetting Wimbledon champion Simona Halep, Townsend stuck to her aggressive game plan and repeatedly rushed the net to set up easy volleys and smashes.
“I just tried to do what I did in the last round and tried to get better,” Townsend said.
Townsend came forward 75 times against Cirstea, amassing a 47-8 advantage in net points won. That style got her past Halep, the No. 4 seed, and never let Cirstea come back in a match that lasted less than 90 minutes.
Townsend’s previous best result at a major tournament was when she reached the third round at the 2014 French Open at age 18. She next faces No. 15 seed Bianca Andreescu, who beat No. 19 Caroline Wozniacki 6-4, 6-4.
“I’m here and I’m going to make it count,” Townsend said.
Andreescu missed most of the summer because of a shoulder injury, but the Canadian returned to win the title in Toronto earlier this month. She hasn’t lost a singles match since March, though fell in the first round of women’s doubles on Friday to Townsend’s team.
American Kristie Ahn also added to her best performance in a Grand Slam by beating 2017 French Open champion Jelena Ostapenko 6-3, 7-5.
Rafael Nadal reached the fourth round in his 13th straight Grand Slam with a 6-3, 6-4, 6-2 victory over qualifier Hyeon Chung, a 2018 Australian Open semifinalist who has been slowed since by injuries. Nadal hadn’t played since Tuesday after receiving a walkover in his second-round match, but the three-time champion didn’t show any rust in a match he finished in just 1 hour, 59 minutes.
More than half of the 32 seeded men didn’t even make the third round, where a matchup on Saturday between No. 14 John Isner and 22nd-seeded Maric Cilic, the 2014 U.S. Open champion, was the only match in the third round between two seeded players.
The women’s field lost a top-10 seed when No. 7 Kiki Bertens was beaten, 6-2, 6-3, by 26th seed Julia Goerges.