Only to a point, because Monfils eventually lost the chaotic and disjointed match 6-3, 6-2, 3-6, 6-2 on Friday in Arthur Ashe Stadium.
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Djokovic has described Monfils as the only player he would buy a ticket to watch and the Frenchman delivered an entertaining if unconventional display that drew both anger and applause.
In Friday’s late semifinal, No. 3 seed Stan Wawrinka of Switzerland beat No. 6 seed Kei Nishikori also by 3 sets to 1.
He was roundly booed again by sections of the 20,000-strong crowd as he dropped the first game of the third set.
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.
There is a reassuring familiarity about the final four men left at the U.S. Open.
STAT OF THE DAY 53 – Percentage of service games (9-of-17) won by Gael Monfils in his loss to Novak Djokovic. When the guy is too good, playing clean and you’re playing not that good, you need to change.
By the end of the second set, Djokovic looked certain to make it 13 consecutive wins over Monfils. “You know, it’s tough, because when he calls me unprofessional, he calls my coach unprofessional, calls my physio unprofessional, calls my physic – all my team, actually, unprofessional. I’m very sad to learn that such a legend criticized me, because at the end what I can say to John is, ‘I want to be the best'”.
“He’s a better player than me, definitely”.
Djokovic admitted Monfils’s freakish approach had unsettled him and that he had been foolish to get drawn into the trap.
“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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Djokovic regained the upper hand, as he so often does, reaching his 21st Grand Slam final and seventh at the US Open with an eventful and, at times, freakish 6-3, 6-2, 3-6, 6-2 victory over Monfils on Friday.
But when trailing 2-0 and a break down in the third set, the impressive Monfils suddenly reappeared and he went on to take the set as Djokovic ripped his shirt and stalked the court.
The present could not be brighter for the lefthanded Kerber, the first woman from Germany to win the US Open – and to get to No. 1 – since her idol and mentor, Steffi Graf.
Novak Djokovic takes on Gael Monfils in the men’s singles semi-final clash of the 2016 US Open on Friday (9 September).
Defending champion Novak Djokovic is through to the final of the US Open after beating Gaël Monfils in four sets.
Tenth-seeded Monfils has lost twice to Djokovic in NY – in five sets in the first round in 2005 and a straight sets defeat in the 2010 quarter-finals.
As for betting on this match we see that Monfils only holds 71.8% of the time on outdoor hard courts against Djokovic, while the Serb holds 87.4% of the time against the Frenchman in their career series so far.
Kerber won her first US Open title and the second major trophy of her out-of-nowhere breakthrough season, taking five of the last six games to beat a fading Pliskova, 6-3, 4-6, 6-4, on Saturday.
Djokovic’s progress was marred, however, by suggestions Monfils had not given his best, particularly in the first set when the Frenchman trailed 5-0. He said it was a tactic, trying to throw off the world No. 1, having started the match down 5-0.
“I had phases when I was pissed off, phases when I was entertained by what he’s doing, and phases where I was upset with myself for allowing him to disturb my rhythm”, Djokovic said.
That was one of two major triumphs for Wawrinka, who won his first at the Australian Open in 2014, and the Swiss insists he needs no extra motivation to chase a third this weekend.
He is already the world’s No. 1 player with a spectacular skill set now unmatched in all of tennis.
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So the fluky way his U.S. Open has gone is a benefit, he figures.
