After dropping the first five games of the match, he said he turned to his coach – Mikael Tillstrom – and said he was “going to Plan B”. The U.S. Open is the year’s last Grand Slam tournament, after all.
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The sixth-seeded Nishikori rallied to upset Andy Murray in five sets Wednesday, and he picked up where he left off at the outset of the semifinal.
Hunching over between points, Monfils dodged a time violation warning from chair umpire Eva Asderaki Moore and denied three break points for the second straight game for 1-all in the fourth set. However, Wawrinka’s biggest win as a professional came over Djokovic a year ago in the French Open final, and Wawrinka has won his past 10 finals in a row.
Wawrinka won the 2014 Australian Open and the 2015 French Open. That’s certainly been the case this year at Flushing Meadows.
Arthur Ashe Stadium’s retractable roof is being closed because of rain during the third set of the U.S. Open semifinal between No. 3 Stan Wawrinka and No. 6 Kei Nishikori.
Jamie Murray of Britain and Bruno Soares of Brazil won the US Open doubles championship for their second Grand Slam title this year, beating Spaniards Pablo Carreno Busta and Guillermo Garcia-Lopez, 6-2, 6-3.
Wawrinka has played a staggering 23 sets and 237 games.
The Serb, however, would quickly get back into rhythm, clinching the first set and then going on to demolish Mofils in second.
Djokovic has hardly been tested in the ongoing tournament en route to the semi-final.
Djokovic won a four-setter in the first round. I think the crowd disliked his efforts towards the end of the second set.
Told about McEnroe’s comments, Monfils says he’s “very sad to learn that such a legend (would) criticize me, because at the end what I can say to John is, ‘You know, John, I want to be the best”.
“Sometimes you don’t have an answer to these kinds of questions”, Djokovic said.
“The way he handles every tactic that we try to make against him, I think so far he’s the best”.
The last of the quarter finals worked out very well indeed for our outright bets on Wednesday when Kei Nishikori, somewhat surprisingly it must be said, joined Gael Monfils in the semis in NY. He appeared to be acting like he was not interested, and suddenly whip big shots.
“At times in decisive, tense moments, we had many exchanges form the baseline”, Djokovic said in his on-court interview.
Stan Wawrinka, of Switzerland, reacts after winning the third set against Kei Nishikori, of Japan, during the semifinals of the U.S. Open tennis tournament, Friday, Sept. 9, 2016, in NY. He will now meet World No. 1 and top seed Novak Djokovic.
That’s because Djokovic enjoyed the easiest path to a major semifinal in the almost half-century of the Open era: Three of his first five foes pulled out of because of injuries.
Djokovic handed another break of serve straight back with a double fault, but after a second medical timeout – this time for his right shoulder – the two-time champion clinched victory with a victor on match point that flew past an nearly stationary Monfils.
Two-time US Open champion Djokovic, chasing a third major of the season and 13th overall, remains wary of the dangers posed by Monfils, whose only other appearance in a Slam semi-final was at the 2008 French Open.
The score may have looked fairly routine but Novak Djokovic’s semifinal win over Gael Monfils at the US Open was downright freakish.
They swapped breaks in the next two games before Djokovic struck again at a 4-2 up was within touching distance of victory and this time he didn’t let Monfils back in. Monfils flashed glimpses, even taking the third set from Djokovic, but eventually fell in four sets, 6-3, 6-2, 3-6, 6-2. After all of 19 minutes, Djokovic earned a set point.
Monfils – now 0-13 against Djokovic – felt he needed to do something different at 0-5. Djokovic raced to a 5-0 lead. The 12-time major champion had triple set point while serving at 5-1, and Monfils was seemingly trying to give away the game.
“And then I won’t win a match like that, but I can win maybe 15 minutes, maybe two more games, one more game”.
But even Monfils’ borderline outrageous tactics were insufficient to bamboozle Djokovic, who survived some anxious moments to win in 2½ hours, 6-3, 6-2, 3-6, 6-2.
Players often swap shirts between sets – but don’t dispose of the old one by shredding it in two.
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“You can not play that well coming into a semifinal and put in an effort like that for two sets”, even with the stifling weather, former US Open finalist Greg Rusedski said on Eurosport.
