Gael Monfils, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga move on to US Open quarters
— -- Gael Monfils and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga will give the US Open men's quarterfinal round a French flavor, as both won their respective fourth-round matches Sunday.
Monfils swept Marcos Baghdatis 6-3, 6-2, 6-3 to improve to 18-2 in matches he has played since a first-round loss at Wimbledon.
That stretch includes the highest-level tournament title of his career at the Citi Open in Washington, D.C., in July.
Three days after his 30th birthday, there were still classic Monfils moments in this one, including an attempt to tie his shoe in the middle of a point.
But he has yet to drop at set at this tournament.
The 31-year-old Baghdatis hadn't reached a Grand Slam round of 16 since the 2009 Australian Open.
Over at Louis Armstrong Stadium, Tsonga beat American Jack Sock in four sets to reach the quarterfinals for the second straight year.
After failing to covert one match point in the third-set tiebreaker, the ninth-seeded Tsonga dominated the fourth for the 6-3, 6-3, 6-7 (7), 6-2 victory Sunday.
Sock, the last man from the United States left in the draw, was trying to reach his first major quarterfinal.
No American man has made the last eight at the U.S. Open since 2011.
The 26th-seeded Sock upset 2014 U.S. Open champ Marin Cilic in the third round, never facing a break point.
But on Sunday, he had just five aces and was broken six times.
The US Open is the only major at which Tsonga, the 2008 Australian Open runner-up, has not reached at least the semifinals.
Tsonga could next face top-ranked Novak Djokovic, who faces 21-year-old Kyle Edmund later Sunday. Asked what kind of match he hoped for between those two, Tsonga said, "really, really, really long.''
Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.?
