The defending champion, who had spent just over three hours on court at the year’s last grand slam, showed some better signs during a 6-2 6-1 6-4 victory on Sunday.
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Having played only a little over five hours of tennis so far in the tournament, the Serb now faces Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in the last eight, but he insists he feels in good shape.
Djokovic, who has won his last 73 matches against opponents ranked outside the world’s top 50, is now just one win away from reaching the semi-finals here for the 10th year in a row.
Djokovic even cracked a smile after one effortless exchange in which he ran Edmund this way and that before dropping a backhand victor right near the baseline early in the third set.
“Not that I didn’t believe in my game, but it’s nice to actually do it on a big stage against some good players, two top-20 players and a guy that was playing well”. He had some well-documented struggles leading into the final grand slam of the year, having an early exit at Wimbledon and the Olympics, and hasn’t looked himself in NY.
“It took everything. I could not dream better than that”, Pouille, the 22-year-old, said of his victory on Sunday.
“It was good to play an entire match, considering I had not had much time on the court in the last couple of rounds”, Djokovic said afterwards. “So I’m really glad to be back”, Djokovic said in his on-court interview. It was his first night session on the biggest stadium and he made a lot of errors.
American doubles player Nick Monroe returned to the court after a scary fall into the stands in his U.S. Open match.
Roberta Vinci fell apart after losing the opening set on a foot fault, allowing No. 2 seed Angelique Kerber to take last nine games and win their U.S. Open quarterfinal 7-5, 6-0 on Tuesday.
It was already his best effort in a grand slam, so to beat Isner was completely unexpected, and to hold his nerve in a tie-breaker even more so.
There was some reason for concern for the Djokovic camp when their man required treatment to a wrist injury when 2-1 up in the third, and a loss of concentration from Djokovic allowed Edmund back into the contest as the pair exchanged breaks. ‘ I thought I came out of the blocks really well playing with high intensity and obviously it’s not easy waiting the entire day to start, but I think I did.
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The British number three ripped a forehand victor to move to another break point, but the Serb did not allow him to capitalize. “So I’m quite confident he’s going to get there soon”. “I needed a little bit of massage”, he quipped. So coming into the second week of a Grand Slam quarterfinals feeling good, it’s exactly where I want to be’. Andy Murray and Johanna Konta might have trained in Spain but Kyle has gone from Richard Plews and John Black through Colin Beecher, James Trotman and now Ryan Jones. I will keep working to try and find it’.
