2014 Tennis US Open Results

Belinda Bencic, at 17 the youngest player in the top 100, is out of the US Open, a result celebrated joyously, no doubt, in the most populous nation on earth for their representative, Peng Shuai, but lamented among lovers of fairytales. As sometimes happens, the fox caught up with the gingerbread.

The unseeded but highly regarded Swiss teenager is on her way home with her Serbian contemporary and qualifier Aleksandra Krunic, who lost overnight in a cracking fourth-round match against the 16th seed, Victoria Azarenka, while Peng, also unseeded, prepares for a semi-final against Caroline Wozniacki, who demolished Sara Errani in the last night match on Tuesday.

All of China will be watching the semis, as has become a save-get mantra since the arrival of double slam champion Li Na at the summit of the women’s game. Peng is just the third Chinese player after Li and Zheng Jie to go this deep in a major.

Her 6-2, 6-1 win over Bencic was considerably more emphatic than Azarenka’s late-night struggle against Krunic, whose cool demeanour over three tight sets bordered on the scary. One day, surely, Bencic and Krunic will contest a grand slam final.

But the glory rightly belonged to the 28-year-old Peng on day nine. She was ruthlessly efficient again and has reached the semi-finals for the loss of a mere 30 games. Who is to say she cannot ride that surge of form all the way to the final – and maybe win it?

She served for the match in the seventh game of the second set and Bencic handed it to her when she dumped a tired backhand into the lower netting, a sadly low-key exit to an exhilarating ride. She will have other tournaments, though, where she will make her opponents suffer as Peng did to her on the hottest day of the year.

For Peng the US Open just gets better. It is hard to believe she began her run by beating her compatriot Zheng in straight sets, shocked the fourth seed, Agnieszka Radwanska, turned over the 28th seed, Roberta Vinci, without fuss and beat the Wimbledon semi-finalist Lucie Safarova – all in straight sets.