Meanwhile, Rafael Nadal suffered yet another embarrassing defeat, crashing out of the tournament to Lucas Pouille in five sets. Though Sock did go on to win the set in the tie-break eventually, saving a match point at 7-6, it didn’t translate at all to his game in the fourth set that Tsonga won with the loss of merely two games to get the match win.
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Kyle Edmund says he will try to take the game to Novak Djokovic when he faces the world number one in the fourth round of the US Open on Sunday.
“Feels great to play a full match after a weird couple of days when I didn’t have too much tennis”, said Djokovic, who was handed a walkover into the third round by injured Czech Jiri Vesely and played just six games before third round opponent Mikhail Youzhny retired hurt. The victor of this match will play either Jo-Wilfried Tsonga or Jack Sock in the quarter-finals.
Edmund often troubled the world number one with his trademark huge forehands but it wasn’t enough to stop the Serb from cruising to a two set lead in dropping only three games.
“I’m feeling very good, to be honest”, Djokovic said.
“I made Kyle work for each point”, said Djokovic, whose quarterfinal opponent is No. 9 Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, the man he beat in the 2008 Australian Open final for the first of his 12 major championships.
‘It was a tough match but I came off a lot happier than I was during the match because I started to impose myself in the third set, ‘ he said.
Djokovic handled Edmund 6-2, 6-1, 6-4 to reach the quarterfinals.
‘To play on the biggest tennis court of all doesn’t get much better. The two break points that Edmund was able to convert came in the third set, on either side of the medical time-out. “When it happens it will be an incredible feeling because that was also one of my dreams when I was a kid”.
“I’m getting better and better each time at that”.
In one of the biggest surprises of the tournament so far, Nadal was unable to reach the quarter-finals at a grand slam once again – his last last-eight appearance coming at the 2015 French Open.
With Pouille, Tsonga and Monfils into the quarter-finals at the US Open, at least one will make it into the semis.
So the question was put to Djokovic: Is so little action a good thing, because it provides a chance to rest and heal after some trouble with his left wrist and right arm recently?
Andy Murray will see if he can join them when he faces Grigor Dimitrov on Monday.
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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.
