A blockbuster fourth-round clash between World No. 1 Daniil Medvedev and Nick Kyrgios headlines the action on Sunday at the US Open, where Matteo Berrettini and Casper Ruud are also seeking to reach the quarter-finals at the hard-court major in New York.

ATPTour.com looks at five things to watch on Day 7 at Flushing Meadows.

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1) Medvedev Vs. Kyrgios Part III: New York plays host to the third act of a gripping 2022 rivalry on Sunday as World No. 1 Medvedev and the in-form Kyrgios collide.

Medvedev proved too strong for the Australian over four sets at the Australian Open in January, but Kyrgios improved his lead in the pair’s ATP Head2Head series to 3-1 with an impressive three-set triumph in Montreal in mid-August. A confident Kyrgios is 13-2 since reaching his maiden major final at Wimbledon in July, and Medvedev is prepared for a match of fine margins.

“We’ve played great matches. I think all have been quite tight on the scoreboard,” said Medvedev after defeating Wu Yibing in the third round in New York. “It’s 3-1 to him but I will try to do better this time and it will be a great match for people to watch.”

A spot in the quarter-finals is not the only thing on the line for Medvedev, who would lose his No. 1 spot in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings after the US Open should he fall to Kyrgios on Sunday. For Kyrgios, securing a quarter-final berth would lift the Australian back into the Top 20 of the Pepperstone ATP Live Rankings.

2) Berrettini To Brave Foki?: Matteo Berrettini fended off the challenge of 2012 champion Andy Murray on Friday to progress to the fourth round for the fourth consecutive year. Next up, the 13th seed faces another player renowned for his on-court resilience in Alejandro Davidovich Fokina.

Davidovich Fokina rallied from a two-sets-to-one deficit to defeat Marton Fucsovics in the third round, and the World No. 39 will enter his second tour-level meeting against 2019 semi-finalist Berrettini with confidence — he was a straight-sets winner in the pair’s sole previous meeting on the clay in Monte Carlo in 2021.

3) Ruud Seeks To Halt Moutet’s Dream Run: Casper Ruud is into uncharted territory in New York. The Norwegian held firm to beat Tommy Paul over five sets on Friday and reach the fourth round at Flushing Meadows for the first time. The run follows a significant breakthrough for Ruud at Grand Slam level after his maiden championship match appearance at Roland Garros in June.

Ruud’s next opponent, Corentin Moutet, thought his US Open was over eight days ago after falling in the final round of qualifying. Yet the Frenchman has seized his opportunity as a lucky loser to surge to the fourth round of a major for the first time. Sunday’s clash will be the maiden tour-level meeting between dangerous lefty Moutet and fifth seed Ruud.

4) Carreno Busta & Khachanov Clash: Is Pablo Carreno Busta embarking on another dream US Open run? The Spaniard was a semi-finalist in New York in 2017 and 2020, and the 12th seed has been a consistent performer so far this fortnight, defeating 2020 champion Dominic Thiem, Alexander Bublik and Alex de Minaur all in four sets.

The Montreal champion now meets Karen Khachanov as he chases his 10th win of the North American hard-court swing. The World No. 31 Khachanov has won the past three meetings between the pair, including clashes on hard courts at the Tokyo Olympics and at Indian Wells. Can Carreno Busta summon more New York magic to halt that trend on Sunday?

5) Ram/Salisbury Aim To Maintain Momentum: Defending doubles champions Rajeev Ram and Joe Salisbury have been in ominous form in New York so far, producing two straight-sets victories to reach the third round for the fourth year in a row. Yet their next opponents, Simone Bolelli and Fabio Fognini, also know a thing or two about winning at the majors.

The Italians triumphed at the 2015 Australian Open and reached the semi-finals in New York in 2011. With both teams chasing their third tour-level titles of 2022, top seeds Ram and Salisbury could be set their biggest test yet as they chase their third Grand Slam crown.

Rafael Nadal was bloodied and tested in his second-round match at the US Open against Fabio Fognini. The Spaniard faced no such difficulties on Saturday inside Arthur Ashe Stadium.

The four-time champion breezed past former World No. 7 Richard Gasquet 6-0, 6-1, 7-5 to reach the fourth round at Flushing Meadows. Nadal has won all 18 of his ATP Head2Head meetings against Gasquet and 34 consecutive sets against the Frenchman.

On Thursday evening, Nadal not only cut open the bridge of his nose in a freak accident in the final set; he had trailed Fognini by a set and 2-4. During his post-match press conference, the 22-time major winner was clear that he was “practising much, much better than what I am playing”.

The lefty showed that in his victory against the 15-time ATP Tour titlist Gasquet. After escaping a 0/40 deficit on his serve in the first game, Nadal raced through the rest of the match in two hours and 17 minutes.

Nadal won the first nine games of the clash. When Gasquet finally got on the scorebaord thanks to a Nadal return error, the Frenchman lifted his arms in celebration. It was that kind of match for the Frenchman.

Nadal hit a tremendous backhand passing shot for a winner from well behind the baseline to begin the third set, seemingly putting himself on the verge of victory. But Gasquet’s shoulders opened up from there and he got back on serve, showing the level that helped him to the Top 10 in the world. Nadal did not let the encounter get any trickier, earning his seventh service break at 5-5 before successfully serving for his place in the fourth round.

Gasquet holds the record for most losses against Nadal without a win (18). Second on the list is another Frenchman, Paul-Henri Mathieu, who lost all 10 of his clashes against the lefty.

Nadal will next play Frances Tiafoe, against whom he has won both his previous matches. The American defeated Argentine Diego Schwartzman 7-6(7), 6-4, 6-4 earlier in the day.

“I thought it was a hell of a match. Especially that first set, one of the craziest sets I’ve played in my career,” Tiafoe said. “It had everything in it. Down two breaks, serving again at 6-5, me down 6/3 in the breaker. Unbelievable how I even won the set.”

Gauff, 18, also sung the praises of Australian Nick Kyrgios in her press-conference Friday at Flushing Meadows. The teenage star recalled multiple times at the Miami Open, where despite Kyrgios already being on court for hours, the Australian chose to hit with her.

The first encounter came when she was 13 years old. Kyrgios, who just completed a practice session, stuck around to hit with the rising American star for approximately 30 minutes. The following year, Gauff was even more shocked when Kyrgios concluded a gruelling two-hour practice with Frances Tiafoe and despite thinking he would call it a day at the office, the Aussie continued practising with Gauff for an extra hour.

“I know there’s things on the court that he does that people don’t agree with. I probably don’t agree with some things,” Gauff said. “But it’s just things like [hitting with a young kid] that stands out for me. That’s why I feel like I can never dislike him because constantly when I see him around, he’s always saying hello.

“It’s just moments like that that people don’t really see about him. So I think people paint him as a bad guy. I feel around the grounds, at least my experience of him, he’s not.”

Gauff attests to those experiences with Kyrgios as part of her progression as a teenager, adding that the World No. 25 even offered a word of encouragement about her game.

“I think in the end it helped me in the long run as a player hitting with him,” she said. “He told me good things about my game. At that time I’m like, ‘Nick Kyrgios thinks I’m a good player.’ You start to believe that and gain confidence in that.”

Little did Kyrgios know that the young teen he was pracitising with would someday share the largest tennis venue in the world, Arthur Ashe Stadium, with him in the fourth round of the season’s final Slam. On Sunday, both Gauff and Kyrgios look to advance to the quarter-finals at the US Open. The Aussie meets World No. 1 Daniil Medvedev in a blockbuster match Sunday night, and according to Gauff, she will be a lifetime supporter of Kyrgios.

“If he keeps it up, I think he can go far. He can win the tournament. We all know he has the ability to. He was close at Wimbledon. I always, always root for him, no matter who he’s playing, to be honest,” Gauff said.

Thanasi Kokkinakis and Nick Kyrgios may have been rivals on the singles court earlier this week at the US Open, but their ‘Special Ks’ doubles partnership is showing little sign of slowing down in New York.

The Australian duo raised its game at crucial moments to defeat Yoshihito Nishioka and Andre Goransson 6-4, 7-6(3) on Saturday and advance to the third round on tournament debut at the hard-court Grand Slam. Kyrgios and Kokkinakis did not face a break point and won 85 per cent (39/46) of points behind their first serves to wrap a 84-minute win that improved their team record at majors this year to 8-0.

Kyrgios defeated Kokkinakis in the first round of the US Open singles on Tuesday. The Australian pair lifted its maiden Grand Slam title together at the Australian Open in January and its next assignment in New York is a third-round meeting against 11th seeds Harri Heliovaara and Lloyd Glasspool.

Also on Saturday, second seeds Wesley Koolhof and Neal Skupski held their nerve to overcome home favourites Nathaniel Lammons and Jackson Withrow, 6-3, 6-7(5), 6-4. Koolhof and Skupski, who lead the Pepperstone ATP Live Doubles Teams Rankings after lifting six tour-level titles in 2022, next face Matthew Ebden and Max Purcell. The Wimbledon champions also downed an American duo, Robert Galloway and Alex Lawson, 6-2, 6-2.

The 2019 champions Juan Sebastian Cabal and Robert Farah kept their bid for a second US Open crown alive but were made to work overtime for a second-round win by Diego Hidalgo and Fabien Reboul. Cabal and Farah won four fewer points than their opponents in a three-hour, 23-minute epic but prevailed 7-6(2), 6-7(5), 7-6(10-7) to book a third-round appointment with Tim Puetz and Michael Venus. The fourth-seeded German-New Zealand duo beat Nuno Borges and Francisco Cabral 6-4, 7-6(3).

Nikola Mektic and Mate Pavic wasted no time booking their third-round spot. The 2020 finalists eased past home wild card pairing Nicholas Godsick and Ethan Quinn 6-1, 6-3 in just 56 minutes.

When Karen Khachanov was a kid, he did more than train to become a professional tennis player. The Moscow-native swam, played basketball and participated in athletics.

But from ages 10-11, he also attended chess class. Instead of blasting forehands and crushing backhands, Khachanov learned to outmanoeuvre opponents on a 64-square board, where no physical power or foot speed could help him.

“[In chess] you need to think all the time. You have 100 different combinations and variations with each move. It always depends which figure your opponent will move. There always has to be some tactics and for sure it’s a mental game as well,” Khachanov said. “You need to stay sometimes three, four hours in a competition if we’re talking about professional chess to sweat it out and try to think about one move [for] maybe 30 minutes.

“You break your head and that’s the really interesting part of the chess game.”

Some see Khachanov’s power from the baseline and miss the tactics he uses to position himself for his biggest shots. In a way, he believes all the thinking that goes into the sport makes it similar to chess.

“I think there are some similarities because you always think about what type of shot you can do, tactics are one of the most important things in tennis as well,” Khachanov said. “[It is about] where you place a shot, how hard, how high, percentage of the serves, where you’re going to stay, where you’re going to return and all those things. Of course they matter. It’s not that simple I would say, but there are some similarities.”

Khachanov does not constantly follow professional chess tournaments, but he is plenty familiar with the biggest stars in the chess world like Magnus Carlsen and Hikaru Nakamura. He also watched The Queen’s Gambit, which he called “one of the nicest TV shows I remember on Netflix”.

One of his coaches, Jose Manuel ‘Pepo’ Clavet, is also a chess fan. When they are together, they play two or three games per day.

“I think [I play chess] the same way I am in tennis,” Khachanov said, cracking a laugh. “I try to be the same way.”

Khachanov is also a basketball fan, who attends NBA games when he can, like he did earlier this year during the Miami Open presented by Itau. The 26-year-old was a big fan of the Miami Heat when he was younger, watching LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh lead the team to glory. He is a big fan of James, which has led him to follow the Los Angeles Lakers more closely, although he is still a Heat fan.

“I think the way he is, the mentality that he has in the sport, what he [has] achieved already. He’s one of the best athletes. Let’s say [he is like] Cristiano in soccer, Messi in soccer, him, Jordan… like Rafa, Novak and Roger in tennis,” Khachanov said. “He’s one of the best basketball players. I think the way he stays motivated and is still looking forward to play at his best and is still scoring the way that he does, it’s tough to explain sometimes.”

On the court, Khachanov has been one of the most consistent players on the circuit in recent years. Since August 2018, he has been lodged in the Top 35 of the Pepperstone ATP Rankings without falling from that group.

“Sometimes you just look forward to being better. Sometimes you can be worse as well, so in a way I never look back and think I’m Top 20, Top 30, Top 35. I always look forward to achieving my goals and try to move forward,” Khachanov said. “I always think of how I can improve to rise up in the rankings, to be back in the Top 10. This is the ultimate goal I have. I’m working every day to try to find out what I need [to do], what I can do better.”

Khachanov reached his career-high of World No. 8 in July 2019 after winning the Rolex Paris Masters, an ATP Masters 1000 event, the November before.

But one of his most impressive performances came in a loss. At the 2018 US Open, Khachanov pushed Rafael Nadal to the limit in a four-hour, 23-minute loss over four sets.

“I always am thinking about New York. It’s one of my favourite Slams, I would say, especially Arthur Ashe Stadium. The match against Rafa that I played in 2018, the emotions, the adrenaline, it is one of the good ones to remember,” Khachanov said. “That’s why coming back to New York I always want to do well.”

It is performances like those that make Khachanov confident on court. The 27th seed still believes he can compete with anyone on his best day.

“That’s a very important thing, first of all to believe in yourself, to believe in your abilities, what you can do when you play at your best, where you can be and which players you can beat, how far you can go. That’s obviously one of the mental parts, [the] self-belief that you can do well,” Khachanov said. “You can go out there and still lose a match and there is no shame in losing it. It’s the belief that you can go deep and win it all. That’s what it takes and that’s a really important part of my game and tennis in general.”

To Khachanov, his game is like a puzzle made of components, with some related to his physical tools and others to the mental side of the sport.

“All those parts are really important to put together,” Khachanov said. “[With them] I can achieve what I’m dreaming of.”

The next step in achieving those dreams will be to defeat Montreal champion Pablo Carreno Busta on Sunday at Flushing Meadows.