NEW YORK: Normally, it takes wins in five full matches to reach a Grand Slam semi-final. Novak Djokovic has made it that far at the US Open by playing only two, because three opponents pulled out of the tournament with injuries.
Djokovic, the top seed and defending champion, once again needed to put in very little work, advancing to the final four at Flushing Meadows for the 10th consecutive year when ninth-seeded Jo-Wilfried Tsonga stopped because of a hurt left knee on Tuesday night.
The first two sets of their quarter-final went Djokovic’s way, 6-3, 6-2. At the ensuing changeover, Tsonga was visited by a trainer and had his left leg taped below the knee. They played one point to begin the third set: Tsonga double-faulted, then retired from the match.
This came after Djokovic’s second-round opponent, Jiri Vesely, withdrew from the tournament with a sore left forearm.
And then the man Djokovic was supposed to play in the third round, Mikhail Youzhny, quit after six games and only 31 minutes with a strained left hamstring.
“I put myself in a position again to be one match away from the finals. As tournament progresses, I feel like I’m getting better,” Djokovic said.
“Of course, this Grand Slam is very unique for me: I never experienced something like this to have three retirements on the road to the semi-finals.”
Tsonga said when the pain came on Tuesday, “I knew it was over for me straightaway”.
“It’s already tough to play against one of the best tennis players,” Tsonga said, “but when I don’t have my knee, I have no chance to come back from two sets to love.”
MONFILS ENDS LONG WAIT
On Friday, Djokovic will play another Frenchman, Gael Monfils, after the 10th seed advanced earlier against compatriot Lucas Pouille, the man who eliminated Rafael Nadal in the fourth round.
Playing steadily, and with only a dose of the spectacular, Monfils reached his first major semi-final since 2008 — at the French Open — by beating an error-prone Pouille 6-4, 6-3, 6-3.
Dictating from the baseline, Monfils took charge with seven of his 13 aces in the opening set, gaining the only break he needed in the seventh game.
Pouille conceded a break with a stream of errors to fall 1-2 down in the second, and a break of more than 15 minutes to close the new Arthur Ashe stadium roof, with Monfils up 4-3, did nothing to change the momentum.
After holding with back-to-back aces, Monfils broke the error-prone Pouille at love to take the set.
“I was lucky because I had a break so it was easy in my mind,” Monfils said of coping with the delay.
“I just felt so good [and] it was going to be even better because it was going to be indoors. I just kept going with my game plan.”
One break was all he needed in the third, as he wrapped up the match without facing a break point.
WOZNIACKI, KERBER ADVANCE
All in all, the spectators with tickets for Tuesday did not get much competitive or quality tennis. All four matches were decided in straight sets or, in the case Djokovic v Tsonga, even fewer.
In the first women’s quarter-final, Roberta Vinci fell apart after losing the opening set on
a foot fault, allowing second seed Angelique Kerber to take the last nine games and win 7-5, 6-0.
In the other, two-time runner-up Caroline Wozniacki was a 6-0, 6-2 winner against Anastasija Sevastova, who injured her right ankle in the second game and was never able to get going.
Wozniacki, the finalist in 2009 and 2014 and semi-finalist also in 2010 and 2011, sympathised with Sevastova after she spent almost three months out of the sport with a right ankle injury earlier this year.
“I feel really sorry for her as I have had that injury before,” said 26-year-old Wozniacki who will now return to the top 30 as a result of her surprise run in New York. “I had to keep pushing her back and make her move.”
Tuesday’s collated results (prefix number denotes seeding):
Men’s singles (quarter-finals): 1-Novak Djokovic (Serbia) bt 9-Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (France) 6-3, 6-2—Tsonga retired; 10-Gael Monfils (France) bt 24-Lucas Pouille (France) 6-4, 6-3, 6-3.
Women’s singles (quarter-finals): Caroline Wozniacki (Denmark) bt Anastasija Sevastova (Latvia) 6-0, 6-2; 2-Angelique Kerber (Germany) bt 7-Roberta Vinci (Italy) 7-5, 6-0.
Published in Dawn September 8th, 2016
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