“But physically, yeah, it was tough today out there”, Bertens said, mentioning a calf problem.
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I have the feeling I played three matches against him, a grinning Djokovic told the crowd after donning a yellow rain hat during his victory speech.
“I always try to have a plan B and C and go from there”, said the 34-year-old, who will be back in action for a third day running on Friday when she faces Dutch outsider Kiki Bertens for a place in the final.
Bertens is deep into unchartered territory. The Russian upset 12th seeded Spaniard Carla Suarez-Navarro 7-5, 7-5 in her fourth-round contest on Wednesday.
Her progress through the Olympic draw was regal, the American player seeing off Jelena Jankovic of Serbia in the last 32 and Urszula Radwanska of Poland in the last 16 before beating Russia’s Vera Zvonareva in the quarterfinals, all without dropping a single set. She gave a happy thumbs up as the trainer wrapped the muscle in a bandage.
But Putintseva made a good impression on Williams, who sees a similar fighting spirit in the Kazakh player. In sweeping to the final, the younger of the Williams girls lost a mere 13 games, a record that became even more impressive when she overwhelmed Russia’s Maria Sharapova 6-0 6-1 to clinch the gold.
“I feel it was a better match for me”, said the reigning champion, who had been below her brilliant best against Kristina Mladenovic in round three.
The Venezuelan-born Spaniard is in the modern mould of tall women players reliant on power-hitting from the baseline. The turning point came at 4-all in the second set, when Putintseva held two break points.
The 21-times grand slam champion rallied back but conceded the opening set when her sliced backhand floated into the net.
Defending champion Serena Williams came back from a set and a break down to beat 60th-ranked Yulia Putintseva of Kazakhstan 5-7, 6-4, 6-1 and reach the French Open semifinals.
Williams and Putintseva first met on the fast red clay of Madrid back in 2013 with Putintseva just 18 years old at the time. Putintseva twice was a point from serving for the biggest victory of her career. Our girl, Serena Williams takes on Yulia Putintseva in the quarterfinals on June 2 at 9 a.m. EST. Under the calming influence of coach Roman Kislyanskiy, she began the season with a thrilling win over former No. 1 Caroline Wozniacki in Melbourne, finishing in the third round for the first time. Williams took the second 6-4, breaking in the last game with Putintseva double-faulted.
Defending champion Serena Williams stormed into the quarterfinals and sister Venus failed to advance in the French Open on Wednesday. At the end of the first set, Williams had made 24 unforced errors to Putintseva’s two, which seems like it might be a typo but is not.
World number one Novak Djokovic is the first tennis player to reach the US$100 million ($138 million) prize-money mark after reaching the French Open quarter-finals for the 10th time.
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The match originally was supposed to be played Monday, but was postponed twice because of rain.
