<
        >

          ICYMI at US Open: American women on the rise, Federer and Nadal holding on

          play
          Rogers downs Gavrilova in second round of US Open (1:19)

          American Shelby Rogers defeats Daria Gavrilova in a grueling second round match up to advance to the next round of the US Open. (1:19)

          • Lisa Altobelli, ESPNAug 31, 2017, 06:13 PM

          What is it that Lenny Kravitz sings about the American woman? Stay away from me? Surely the opponents of a few of the U.S. women felt that way Thursday. Both No. 15 Madison Keys and No. 20 Coco Vandeweghe rolled in straight sets, injecting optimism for, yes, an American woman to win it all.

          U.S. up-and-comers Jennifer Brady and Shelby Rogers also impressed en route to the third round. Rogers advanced after playing the longest women's match ever at the Open, clocking in at 3 hours, 33 minutes.

          So many emotions today. Thanks New York for pulling me through! 💖😘🎾🗽🇺🇸#usopen #fight #diadora

          A post shared by Shelby Rogers (@shelbsrogers) on

          And in Thursday's nightcap, No. 1 Rafael Nadal outlasted Taro Daniel in a surprise four-set match. Daniel ran out of adrenaline post-midnight, while Nadal found another gear to reach the Round of 32.

          As for the rest of Thursday's action: Fed is playing the long game, a few Generation Zs are on the move, and the fallout from a late New York night is always sunnier in the light of day.

          The Fed reserve

          He's just getting warmed up. And when we say he, we mean Roger Federer, who, for the first time in his career, started a Grand Slam with back-to-back five-setters. After procuring his 80th US Open win by holding off Mikhail Youzhny, Federer has now already played 5 hours, 45 minutes of tennis in his two matches this week.

          We choose to believe he's just giving his clamoring fans more Fed to watch, and in the process, rattling the guy who's just one Oscar short of an EGOT.

          Annnnd, Federer's epic response. Just a guess that he has seen "Hamilton"? Another classic comeback would've been, "I am not throwing away my shot!"

          Gutsy Gibbs

          In one of the down-to-the-wire matches of the afternoon, American Nicole Gibbs was keeping it loose against world No. 1 Karolina Pliskova.

          Gibbs, known as a scrappy counterpuncher, came close to getting a KO after taking the first set, but she still won over the Queens crowd in an eventual three-set loss.

          With Arthur Ashe Stadium starting to fill up in anticipation of the upcoming Roger Federer match, the crowd, smelling a major upset, was strongly on the side of American underdog Nicole Gibbs against No. 1 Karolina Pliskova. The upset didn't materialize, however, as Pliskova rallied past the former Stanford star 2-6, 6-3, 6-4.

          Kevin Stone, ESPN.com7y ago

          Smells like teen spirit

          While 19-year-old Naomi Osaka extended her impressive run with a win over Denisa Allertova on the women's side, Denis Shapovalov, 18, and Andrey Rublev, 19, are still alive in the men's draw. Both advanced by taking down top-10 opponents in No. 8 Jo-Wilfried Tsonga on Wednesday night and No. 7 Grigor Dimitrov on Thursday, respectively. It marks the first time multiple male teens have reached the US Open third round since 2008.

          The lengend grows. #ElShapo #Shapovalov #ATPworldtour #TennisCanada #Tennis #Canada #usopen #BarnBurner

          A post shared by B A R N B U R N E R (@thebarnburns) on

          Woz reaction

          Stuck with a way-late match Wednesday night, Caroline Wozniacki let it be known she wasn't exactly happy to be exiled to an outer court -- being No. 5 in the world and all -- while wild-card entry Maria Sharapova played on Ashe in the afternoon. Let's just say this generated a fair share of social media responses, both in support and against her remarks. But after a few z's, she posted her own gracious acknowledgment off her Open ouster.

          Meanwhile, a totally unfazed Sharapova sent out her new mag-cover glam shots.

          Since laughter really is the best medicine

          Even before Day 4 action got underway, 15 seeded women and 12 on the men's side were out of the tournament. While more names have since been added to those totals, we'll just leave this here because, come on, giggles are infectious -- especially from a throwback of Fed and Rafa, both of whom had a hard day's night as August turned to September.