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NewsWhistle was live at the 2019 US Open tennis tournament, where players and fans experienced fourteen days of fun and forehands in Flushing Meadows, Queens.

This year’s competition ran from August 26th until September 8th.

Our update for Monday, September 2, the second day of the Round of 16, is below.

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DAY EIGHT – 2019 US OPEN DIARY

THE SLAMMIN’ SUMMARY

Reigning US Open champion and Japanese one-seed Naomi Osaka was eliminated from the tournament today by Swiss thirteen-seed Belinda Bencic. This is the third time the pair have matched up, with Bencic holding a commanding lead of 3-0.

Bencic’s thoughts on playing friend Donna Vekic in the next round:

“I think it means a lot, because, yeah, as you said, she was also very good with 16, 17 won her first WTA title. Then it was, you know, the pressure and some injuries, some difficult times. Now we’re both back. It feels very nice. I’m very happy for her. But definitely I want to win.”

“But still I think it will be great that one of us will be in the semifinal.”

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In other news, Argentinian twentieth-seed Diego Schwartzman upsets German six-seed Alexander Zverev. Zverev received a point penalty in the fourth set, with Schwartzman up 4-2, for an audible obscenity.

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RESULTS 

Winners To Watch – Belinda Bencic (SUI) [13]; Donna Vekic (HRV) [23];  Matteo Berrettini (ITL) [24]; Elise Mertens (BEL) [25]; Rafael Nadal (ESP) [2]; and Gael Monfils (FRA) [13].

Surprise Losses – Naomi Osaka (JPN) [1] (Defeated by Belinda Bencic); Julia Gorges (GER) [26] (Defeated by Donna Vekic); Alexander Zverev (GER) [6] (Defeated by Diego Schwartzman); and Marin Cilic (HRV) [22] (Defeated by Rafael Nadal).

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A BIG-TIME QUOTE 

German six-seed Alexander Zverev on the controversial call during his match:

“Yeah, I mean, code violation is fine. I didn’t even argue that. But neither of us heard me getting a warning in the first place. So it was like, Okay, a warning is fine, it’s no problem, but why am I getting a point penalty?”

“He said he gave me a warning before. I didn’t hear it. Diego didn’t hear it. Most of the crowd didn’t hear it. Okay, it happened. It happened. It’s fine. I think the umpires next time should let me know about it.”

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CELEBRITIES

Celebrities in attendance today include tennis player Rod Laver, ice hockey player Henrik Lundqvist, sportscaster Dick Vitale, actress Maise Williams, personality Jonathan Cheban, American football player Ray Lewis, actor Alec Baldwin, golfer Tiger Woods, tennis player Stan Smith, actress Rosie Perez, actress Cynthia Erivo, actor Jim Parsons, soccer player Ally Love, model Constance Jablonski, and actor Aaron Tveit.

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All copyrighted images by photographer Neil Bainton, unless stated otherwise.

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For all of our 2019 US Open coverage, click here.