Sabalenka and Alcaraz reach the US Open quarter-finals as Zverev plays on

Aryna Sabalenka and Carlos Alcaraz, the defending champions in New York, both reached the US Open quarter-finals on Sunday. The Associated Press described the wins as easier on the scoreboard than they felt on the court. Monday's schedule then resets the draw. Alexander Zverev, the top men's seed still in the field, plays to join them. Naomi Osaka meets Elena Rybakina. Coco Gauff plays Iva Jovic in an all-American match. Linda Noskova is already through after edging Marta Kostyuk.

Frances Tiafoe supplied the loudest home result of the last 24 hours. He beat Daniil Medvedev in straight sets. Medvedev has been a finalist in this building. Tiafoe has made nights here his own before. A straight-sets win over that opponent, on that court, is the kind of result that changes who the quarter-final crowd comes to see.

Alcaraz told reporters he was enjoying the moment after raising his level to reach the last eight. The Spaniard has treated the hard-court swing as a defence of a title rather than a search for one. Sabalenka's path on the women's side has been the same shape: fewer free points than the draw suggested, then a scoreline that still put her through. Defending a US Open is a different job from winning one. The draw knows where you are. The first week is a series of opponents who have studied last year's final.

Zverev's Monday match is the remaining seed story on the men's side. A quarter-final for the German would keep a former world No. 1 in a draw that already has Alcaraz and a dangerous American in Tiafoe. Osaka against Rybakina is a different kind of match. Two big-hitting major winners, one of them a former champion at this event, on a court that rewards first-strike tennis. Gauff against Jovic is the other half of that afternoon for American viewers: a reigning major champion against a younger compatriot who has had to win ugly to stay in the building.

The Open is eight days in. The second week is when the New York crowd starts to pick a narrative and hold it. Last year that narrative was Sabalenka and Alcaraz lifting the two trophies. This year the same two names are in the quarters and the supporting cast has changed. Medvedev is out. Tiafoe is in. Osaka has a draw she can win if the serve holds. Zverev still has to get through Monday.

Grand Slam quarters are where the data from the first week gets expensive. A player who has spent six hours in three-setters arrives at a quarter-final with different legs from a player who has closed in under two. The AP note that Sabalenka and Alcaraz's paths felt harder than they looked is a way of saying the hours were longer than the set counts. That debt comes due in the next round.

For a reader who has not watched every night, the usable list is short. The two champions are through. Tiafoe has removed Medvedev. Noskova is in the last eight. Monday decides Zverev, Osaka-Rybakina and Gauff-Jovic. Those six names, plus whoever Zverev plays, are the second week. Everything else from the first week is now a footnote.

Flushing Meadows in September is a wind tunnel and a night session. The players who have already learned this year's breeze will start as slight favourites over the ones who have only survived it. That is not a prediction about trophies. It is a description of the court they now have to keep winning on.