Djokovic has never won in Cincinnati, losing the finals to Andy Murray in 2008 and 2011, and to Roger Federer in 2009 and 2012.
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With things falling apart in the second set, Djokovic slammed his racket three times, drawing a warning.
A right forearm injury forced Swiss teen Belinda Bencic to withdraw after she dropped the first set against seventh-seeded Lucie Safarova.
In other matches, 12th-seed Richard Gasquet beat Kokkinakis 7-6(5) 6-2 while South Africa’s Kevin Anderson beat American Jack Sock 6-3 7-6(6).
“I think a lot of people in America and outside of America are kind of frustrated and concerned and really scared”, she said.
It was an extraordinary turnaround in the match as Azarenka had raced to a 5-0 lead – when Pavlyuchenkova consulted her coach looking for answers – and sealed a 6-1 first-set lead.
One of the biggest stars the game has ever seen will become the first player since Steffi Graf in 1988 to win the Australian Open, the French Open, Wimbledon and the U.S. Open in a calendar year if she triumphs in New York next month.
Not only did the victory distance Williams from a Rogers Cup loss in which she said she overly pressured herself, but it ensured a quarterfinal match against Ana Ivanovic.
“It’s just muscular, I’m very tight through the forearm”.
On the men’s side, Djokovic waited out a long rain delay before his match started, and then wasted chances to close it out quickly.
Elina Svitolina handed Eugenie Bouchard another defeat by the Canadian looked much improved as she went down narrowly, 7-6 (8/6) 7-5.
Goffin, picking up where he left off, improbably broke in the first game of the third set and repeated the trick as Djokovic continuously failed to find any rhythm with his service games.
Schmiedlova, who defeated 13th seed Agnieszka Radwanska, has capitalised on Maria Sharapova’s withdrawal from the bottom section of the draw.
“It’s only quarter-finals, I know it’s a good result so far and I’m playing great tennis but hopefully I can keep it up tomorrow”. “I had to unfortunately make that decision. I didn’t play Stanford this year, so it was a little different”.
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“I hit more double faults in one match than I have in tournaments”.
