Stan Wawrinka is aware it will be a very different Andy Murray he faces in the French Open semi-finals on Friday than the one he has bullied on clay in the past.
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Back in 2012, Djokovic also was on a 27-match winning streak at Grand Slam tournaments, just as he is entering Sunday.
Murray ended Wawrinka’s reign as Roland Garros champion with a controlled 6-4, 6-2, 4-6, 6-2 win and is the first British man to make the French Open final since 1937.
Not even Rafael Nadal has reached six consecutive semi-finals here but, while the Spaniard’s trophy collection includes nine from Roland Garros, Djokovic is still searching for his first.
Novak Djokovic dismissed Dominic Thiem, 6-2, 6-1, 6-4, surging into his fourth French Open final and a rematch with world No. 2 Andy Murray.
Serena Williams fended off two set points and converted her second to take the opener 7-6 (7) against Kiki Bertens in their French Open semifinal.
Tournament director Guy Forget, who has been criticized for allegedly pushing competitors to play in the rain on Tuesday following Monday’s complete washout, said organizers wanted to ensure all players were treated equally.
Wawrinka was the defending champion and was the man who had brushed aside Djokovic in last year’s final and yet he was run ragged by the quality of Murray’s serving, the variety of his play, his aggression and daring and by his unwavering focus and belief.
Djokovic is a three-time runner-up in Paris and is bidding to become just the eighth man to win all four majors.
Berdych secured a break as the third set began but Djokovic immediately replied with one of his own before the match was suspended for 10 minutes due to rain at 3-3. “Stan’s record here the last couple of years is unbelievable”, Murray said.
Williams’s game was littered with 43 unforced errors, 37 of them coming in the first two sets against a resilient opponent on Court Philippe Chatrier.
“Of course (I feel) also a little bit disappointment”, Thiem said.
Another exchange of breaks in what had become a classic claycourt war of attrition kept things level and forced a tie-break that saw both men fail to convert set points before the more aggressive Thiem edged it.
Tomas Berdych complained the tournament was “one big circus”, while his opponent Novak Djokovic narrowly avoided disqualification, and Serena Williams battled back to escape an embarrassing exit on another interrupted day’s play in Paris.
“I think he’s an awesome player since many, many years”.
“I have been dreaming all year long of reaching the Roland Garros final”.
“Then if you have to play basically every game without serve, without the advantage of serve, it’s going to be unbelievably tough against him”.
At 5-all in the first, Williams went ahead 40-love on her serve, only to get broken.
“In the whole second set I really didn’t think that I’m going to win this match, because he was just on top of me”, Thiem told reporters.
The third set was lopsided as can be, strikingly so given what had transpired until then, and when Williams smacked one return victor, she raised her left fist in the air, much better body language than she exhibited earlier.
“I think I have never played against him as strong as he was playing today”, Wawrinka said.
When Williams showed up two hours late for her press conference after laboring in the quarterfinals against Yulia Putintseva, one suspected something was amiss.
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Thursday’s quarter-final was played out in a damp chill where temperatures nosedived to 12 degrees.
