The world number one will now face either Stan Wawrinka of Kei Nishikori in Sunday’s final.
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“In general, I know when I arrive in the final, I’m ready to play my best tennis, and that’s what I’m looking for”.
Down 2-0 the match was over, but Monfils came back in stunning fashion winning five straight games and eventually the set, prompting Djokovic to rip his shirt. The conditions were different from most of the other days but we had been kind of expecting it.
“Thankfully it’s behind me, so I don’t have any concerns”, said Djokovic, who has defeated Wawrinka twice in NY, in the round of 16 in 2012 and from two sets to one down in the 2013 semi-finals. Wawrinka went up 5-4 and secured the set with a late break.
Hours before the match, Djokovic had clutched at his back during practice. I hoped and believed that as I progressed in the tournament that things would get better, which they did. Something clearly wasn’t working for the Swiss, and it looked like it wasn’t long before he fixed it.
“He doesn’t get too stressed by the big occasion”. We played a four-set match. That’s when a light rain, which had loomed in the forecast since the early afternoon, finally sprinkled down and prompted an eight-minute delay as the retractable roof closed and the court was cleaned.
The Swiss has lost 19 of 23 matches against defending champion Djokovic, who beat French 10th seed Gael Monfils in his semi-final, but Wawrinka has beaten the Serb on his way to both of his grand slam titles. By the end, he was hitting second serves in the low 80s miles per hour or below.
While Djokovic has enjoyed a walkover and two injury-forced retirements on his way to the final, Wawrinka had to save a match point against unheralded Dan Evans in the third round.
No. 3 seed Stan Wawrinka and No. 6 Kei Nishikori have split the opening two sets of their U.S. Open semifinal. He had absolutely no reply to the sheer brute and pace of Wawrinka’s game. That was exactly how it panned out to be.
Even stranger, however, was that it worked, as Djokovic became rattled by the antics, serving two double faults and handing away one break back for 5-3. “My game plan is to be aggressive”.
“I create clothes. I create, I don’t know, dance move”.
“Now I want to share with them all my daily life and what’s important to me — my values, my beliefs, and my habits — and also introduce to them all the fantastic people that are always next to me”.
“If I would get to the net he would go for the passing shot and hit some impossible gets and balls”.
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There were doubts over Novak Djokovic’s fitness at the start of the US Open, but the world number one is now on the brink of another title.
