Tough stuff for Novak Djokovic!
The world no.1 had to edge a combative Feliciano Lopez in the US Open quarterfinal. Feliciano Lopez was in great form, but eventually he started to struggle from a physical point of view by the end of the 2nd set when he decided to come to the net as much as possible to avoid long rallies with the world no.1. Eventually Djokovic won the match in 4 sets 6-1 3-6 6-3 7-6 (2). Match Stats.
Djokovic
Nole admitted that finding his serve by the end of the 4th set helped big time “I started to feel the end of the fourth like my serve, finding the range on my serve, which wasn’t working at all in the first part of the match,” Djokovic said. “Obviously when you start serving better, more accurate, higher percentage of first serves in, you feel more confident.
So that allowed me to kind of relax on the returns. Return points I managed to anticipate well … Returned pretty good and allowed myself to make two mini-breaks, which is a big advantage in the tie-break.”
The semis vs. Cilic
Nole will play Marin Cilic in the semi. Head to head is 13-0 for the Serbian that is the super favorite to reach the final… but the defending champion (Cilic) has been playing his best tennis in New York for the last 2 years, so… you’ll never know.
| A ROUGH DAY |
