NEW YORK: Former champion Maria Sharapova was knocked out of the US Open in the fourth round on Monday, losing 6-4, 6-3 to Spain´s Carla Suarez Navarro who inflicted the Russian´s first ever night-time loss at the tournament.
Sharapova, the 2006 champion who was trying to reach the quarter-finals for the first time since 2012, hit 38 unforced errors and dropped serve six times.
The defeat ended the former world number one´s perfect record of 23 wins — 22 of them on Arthur Ashe Stadium — in night sessions at Flushing Meadows.
Suarez Navarro, who celebrated her 30th birthday Monday, is seeded 30th and was a quarter-finalist in New York in 2013. She will face 2017 runner-up Madison Keys for a place in the semi-finals.
Meanwhile Twenty-time Grand Slam singles champion Roger Federer was stunned by unheralded Australian John Millman 3-6, 7-5, 7-6 (7), 7-6 (3) in the fourth round of the US Open.
The match that started on Monday and ended on Tuesday and saw the tennis legend fall to the 55th ranked Millman, Xinhua news agency reported.
Millman will take on 13-time Grand Slam winner Novak Djokovic in the quarterfinals after the 6th seeded Serbian sailed past Joao Sousa of Portugal 6-3, 6-4, 6-3.
