Obviously it was a big break for qualifier Louisa Chirico when her third round opponent, #4 Victoria Azarenka of Belarus, was forced to withdraw from the Madrid Open with a back injury and Chirico automatically advanced to the quarterfinals. But for the 19-year old who has never won a grand slam match and who just won her first WTA Tour match last year it won’t matter why the chance to play in a WTA Premier Mandatory quarterfinal will be special.

Chirico won’t be joined by any Americans in the women’s quarterfinals after both Christina McHale and Madison Keys were knocked out in the third round. Irina-Camelia Begu of Romania came from behind to defeat McHale 6-7, 6-4, 6-4 while qualifier Patricia Mia Tig of Romania took out her second young American of the tournament when she defeated Keys in straight sets 6-3, 6-4.

On the men’s side Sam Querrey advanced 6-7, 6-3, 6-4 against qualifier Lucas Pouille of France and Jack Sock only needed two sets to defeat Juan Martin del Potro of Argentina 6-4, 7-6. Qualifier Denis Kudla had the much tougher draw but held up well forcing #9 David Ferrer of Spain to a third set before losing 4-6, 6-4, 4-6. In men’s doubles action Rajeev Ram/Raven Klaasen (South Africa) put up a great fight against#4 Ivan Dodig of Croatia and Marcelo Melo of Brazil but did drop it in a tight tiebreaker 5-7, 6-3, 10-8.

Thursday the women’s doubles team of Vania King/Alla Kudryavtseva (Russia) will have their quarterfinal match against #4 Hao-Ching Chan and Yung-Jan Chan of Chinese Taipei. Joining them on the doubles court in their first match of the tournament are #5 seed Bob Bryan and Mike Bryan who will face the Polish team of Lukasz Kubot and Marcin Matkowski. Sock will also get onto the doubles court joining Vasek Pospisil of Canada to form the #8 seeded doubles team and take on Treat Huey of the Philipines and Max Mirnyi of Belarus.

In singles action Querrey takes on #5 Rafael Nadal of Spain in a difficult third round match while Chirico is in the quarterfinals taking on Daria Gavrilova of Australia. Those are two pretty big opportunities for the Americans.

Previous Mutua Madrid Open Coverage:
Preview
Day 1 Update
Day 2 Update
Day 3 Update
Day 4 Update