Roger Federer engineered a 6-1, 6-1 rout in less than an hour, outclassing the big-serving Kevin Anderson to join Novak Djokovic in the quarter-finals of the ATP and WTA Cincinnati Masters on Thursday.
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“I’m excited to be in another final“, said Federer, who has beaten Djokovic in two Cincinnati finals.
The Serb will be aiming to complete his boxed set of Masters titles, with Cincinnati the only one of the nine elite events missing from his resume. “I m happy to get through”. After dropping the first set, she fell behind 3-4 in the second set. The Ukrainian was two points away from grabbing the shock victory, but buckled under the pressure as Djokovic dug deep to take the tie-break.
“Usually there isn’t a point where I’m like, ‘Oh, I’m going to do this, ‘ but today there definitely was”, Williams said.
To hold her game together, it seems she often suffers on court, near tears at times, especially in matches that matter.
“Against top players, it’s not over until you shake the hand”, Ivanovic said. She called that her best stretch since Wimbledon.
63 minutes to reach the semifinals, looking fresh throughout the match. He had only eight unforced errors to 27 for Wawrinka, who was coming off a long, three-tiebreaker win on Friday.
Along the way Djokovic received on-court treatment early in the second set for tightness in his abdomen. Djokovic drilled a twisting serve, closing the 34-minute first set that was high quality tennis apart from Wawrinka’s implosion in the ninth game. In the next game, these two played one of the points of the match at 40-15.
Second seeded Roger Federer of Switzerland also smoothly sailed into the men’s singles semi-final after defeating Feliciano Lopez of Spain in straight sets 6-3 6-4 in 62 minutes.
Wawrinka plays flatter on every shot, Djokovic knows it and exploited the margins in his favor. “So I’m just happy I managed to fight through a lot of tough matches, hard situations, and hopefully that will keep me in good stead”.
Dolgopolov for his part let it fly in a 6-4, 6-2 upset over No. 6 seed Tomas Berdych.
It is the first time since the tournament began in 1899 that no American has reached the final four – and Flushing Meadows is unlikely to offer much in the way of comfort for home fans. The 28-year-old has been in fine form in the ongoing tournament as he has dropped only one set in three matches.
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Djokovic took until his fourth game to hit an ace until his rampant dashing to and from the net forced Wawrinka to err. “It’s the ultimate test to play Novak, he’s had a great run the last few years”.
