But because of the fact that I have to play every day, my focus right away goes for recovery and the next match. “He didn’t make any mistakes”.
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“I’m just not thinking about those kinds of situations”, he later added.
A permanent scowl seems embedded on the face of the 60th-ranked Putintseva, a former junior No. 2 who spent significant time at the academy run by Williams’ coach Patrick Mouratoglou.
Williams made 24 unforced errors in the first set to just two from her opponent, who had never been past the third round of a Grand Slam before this week.
More leaden skies greeted the players on Wednesday, but it was at least fairly dry and Djokovic eventually ground out a 3-6 6-4 6-1 7-5 victory.
Quote of the Day: “He’s one of the leaders of the new generation”.
“In Munich, we had to play when it was snowing – we’re not in a winter sport”. Thursday was an all-too familiar story for Berdych, who lost 6-3, 7-5, 6-3.
Goffin failed to serve out the second set and Thiem subsequently led 5-2 and 6-5 in the tiebreak. “But again, once you accept the circumstances and the decision is such that you play, then you have to go with it”.
Novak Djokovic is coming off a straight sets win over Tomas Berdych that took 30 games to decide. In the victory, Thiem won 66 percent of his first serve points and 49 percent of his second serve points.
Thiem, who had achieved his best Grand Slam result by reaching the quarter-finals, has won more matches (25) on clay this year than any other player.
As well as the players, some fans were also unhappy that, because those on Chatrier saw a minute over two hours of play, they are not entitled to any refund, while supporters on other courts will receive 50 per cent.
He leads their head-to-head 8-7 but Wawrinka has won their last three meetings and both of their matches on clay. The No. 1-seeded Williams’ strokes were off, her range was wrong, to the tune of mistake after mistake after mistake. Furthermore, Thiem does have the “elevation ability” – when the going gets tough, his game improves drastically.
The top-seeded Serb beat Tomas Berdych 6-3, 7-5, 6-3 on Thursday, a day after completing a four-set win over Roberto Bautista Agut.
After failing to capitalize on a break-point opportunity at 1-0 in the third set, Djokovic flung his racket behind him.
Djokovic, looking to win the only major to elude him, will take on Austrian Dominic Thiem on Court Suzanne Lenglen after the completion of the women’s last four encounter between Spain’s Garbine Muguruza and Samantha Stosur.
Looking at the top half of the draw, Djokovic against Berdych is a 95% dunk for the Serb while Thiem should beat Goffin more often than not.
Rain halted play at one set apiece on Tuesday, but 13th seed Thiem quickly found his groove on Wednesday to race through the third set before nailing down a place in the last eight.
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Since Williams earned her fourth consecutive major championship at Wimbledon a year ago for No. 21 overall, she has been beaten in the semifinals of the U.S. Open by Roberta Vinci and in the final of the Australian Open by Angelique Kerber.
