FLUSHING MEADOWS, New York, Sept. 6 (Xinhua) -- Defending champion Novak Djokovic's sizzling U.S. Open form continued with a commanding straight sets win over Juan Martin Del Potro.
The second seeded Serb had lost only 20 games leading up to his quarterfinal and although he was handed his first test of the tournament, he proved good for the No. 7 seed.
There were epic points and epic games in a match that spanned over three hours but at the crucial moments Djokovic came up with the big shots to seal a 6-2, 7-6 (3), 6-4 win and a meeting with David Ferrer in the semifinals.
There are long shots of 31, 27, 26 in the match seasoned with long game of 23 points enduring 17 minutes and eight deuces. There is also long set of 84 minutes, second longest in this year's U.S. Open, 11 more than Djokovic's entire first-round victory last week.
Djokovic will face fourth-seeded David Ferrer of Spain on Saturday. Ferrer advanced to his fourth career major semifinal by using his high-energy brand of leg-churning, ball-chasing tennis to outlast eighth-seeded Janko Tipsarevic of Serbia 6-3, 6-7 (5), 2-6, 6-3, 7-6 (4) in four hours, 31 minutes.
Djokovic, who leads Ferrer 8-5 overall, winning four of last five meetings, has a 5-2 career record against Del Potro before the match, is undefeated in 16 previous U.S. Open matches against lower seeds.
The victory also put him into his sixth straight semifinal, breaking a tie with John McEnroe for fourth in consecutive U.S. Open semifinals.
It also tied Djokovic with Rod Laver and Ivan Lendl for second place with 10 straight Grand Slam semifinals.
Roger Federer, the top seed who was beaten last night by Tomas Berdych, who holds a record of 4-2 against his opponent Andy Murray in the other semifinal, holds the record of 23.
Djokovic started brightly, hitting lines with regularity. Del Potro came through a tough early hold, he needed a couple of aces, but was broken one game later as Djokovic got a read on his first serves and battered away from the baseline.
Del Potro came up with a couple of huge serves in the eighth game but he was unable to fend off a second break, as he missed a backhand down the line and then saw a brilliant return of serve land at his feet which Djokovic followed up with a sumptuous drop shot on set point.
At the start of the second, Del Potro made 10 straight points to sweep the first two games. A massive forehand return from Del Potro rattled the No. 2 seed and in attempting to force a second serve, he double faulted to hand Del Potro a break. The defending champion broke back in the 10th game, which is expected to serve out the set for Del Portro.
In tiebreak, the Serb scored four straight points after the two was in 3-3, pocketing the set with a backhand winner.
Djokovic broke the Argentinean to open up the third set and protected his early break superbly to close out the match.
|
