U.S. Open: Djokovic rallies again as Grand Slam bid reaches semis

NEW YORK — Never fazed, seldom flummoxed, Novak Djokovic is truthful collected successful best-of-five-set matches adjacent erstwhile falling behind, arsenic helium has done repeatedly astatine the U.S. Open.

No opponent, oregon the imaginable of what’s astatine stake, has been excessively overmuch to handle. Not yet, anyway. And present he’s 2 wins distant from the archetypal calendar-year Grand Slam successful men’s tennis since 1969, on with a men’s grounds 21st large title overall.

Djokovic ceded the opening acceptable for the 3rd consecutive lucifer astatine Flushing Meadows – and ninth clip astatine a large successful 2021 – but again it didn’t matter, due to the fact that helium rapidly corrected his strokes and bushed No. 6 effect Matteo Berrettini, 5-7, 6-2, 6-2, 6-3, successful a quarterfinal that began Wednesday nighttime and concluded aft midnight.

Afterward, Djokovic chopped disconnected a question during his on-court interview, sensing wherever it was headed, and said: “Do not inquire maine thing astir history. I cognize it’s there.”

As helium came backmost and improved to 26-0 successful Grand Slam play this season, Djokovic recovered each angle, thwarted each large Berrettini changeable and was truthful locked successful helium dove and dropped his racket during 1 speech yet scrambled, roseate and reinserted himself successful the point. He mislaid it, but the connection to his foe was unmistakable, fundamentally amounting to, “I volition bash immoderate it takes.”

After 17 unforced errors successful the archetypal set, Djokovic made a full of 11 the remainder of the way.

“The champion 3 sets I’ve played successful the tournament, for sure,” helium said.

When Berrettini made 1 past stand, holding a interruption constituent portion trailing 4-2 successful the 3rd set, Djokovic steadied himself. He fto Berrettini enactment a backhand into the net, past conjured up a 121 mph ace and a forehand victor down the enactment to hold, past pointed his close scale digit to his receptor – 1 of galore gestures asking the 20,299 successful the Arthur Ashe Stadium stands for noise.

Four minutes later, that acceptable was his. And 42 minutes later, the lucifer was.

Djokovic already earned trophies connected the Australian Open’s hard courts successful February, the French Open’s clay courts successful June and Wimbledon’s writer courts successful July, defeating Berrettini successful the last astatine the All England Club.

Djokovic has added 5 victories connected the U.S. Open’s hard courts and present faces 2020 runner-up Alexander Zverev successful Friday’s semifinals. If Djokovic tin triumph that lucifer and Sunday’s final, helium volition articulation Don Budge (1938) and Rod Laver (1962 and 1969) arsenic the lone men to assertion each 4 large tennis singles trophies successful 1 season. (Three women person done it, astir precocious Steffi Graf successful 1988; Serena Williams’ bid successful 2015 ended successful the U.S. Open semifinals).

One much Slam rubric besides volition interruption the vocation people Djokovic presently shares with rivals Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal.

Zverev goes into the semifinals connected a 16-match winning streak, including a 1-6, 6-3, 6-1 semifinal triumph against Djokovic en way to the golden medal astatine the Tokyo Olympics.

“I’m pumped,” Djokovic said, looking up to what awaits. “The bigger the challenge, the much glory successful overcoming it.”

The different men’s semifinal is No. 2 Daniil Medvedev, a two-time large finalist, against No. 12 Felix Auger-Aliassime. They won their quarterfinals Tuesday.

The fourth-seeded Zverev, a 24-year-old German, precocious Wednesday day by beating unseeded Lloyd Harris, 7-6 (6), 6-3, 6-4.

Hours later, some Djokovic and Berrettini showed signs of nerves connected a muggy evening with the somesthesia astatine 75 degrees and the humidity astatine 80%. Applause, whistles and roars preceded the archetypal serve, a 124 mph ace by Djokovic, a three-time U.S. Open champion.

Banned from the tourney a twelvemonth agone due to the fact that of the coronavirus pandemic, fans are intelligibly enjoying being a portion of each of this again.

They created a fugue of competing chants of Djokovic’s nickname, “No-le! No-le!” and a shortened mentation of Berrettini’s archetypal name, “Mat-te! Mat-te!” Some greeted Djokovic’s missed serves with claps, considered a no-no successful this sport, and immoderate – possibly the aforesaid folks – lamented Berrettini’s faults with a communal “Awwwww.”

Djokovic’s signifier was not astatine its finest early, with much mistakes than helium could fathom – helium rolled his eyes, enactment a thenar to his forehead, muttered toward those successful his entourage.

Berrettini uses his 6-foot-5, 209-pound framework to make punishing powerfulness successful serves and forehands; Djokovic called him the “Hammer of Tennis.”

But if immoderate subordinate is equipped to dull that style, it’s Djokovic, whose instincts, reflexes, agility and mobility are superior. So he, dissimilar astir different players, tin instrumentality a 131 mph service and not simply get it successful play but bash truthful with capable volition to pb to a missed backhand by Berrettini, arsenic happened erstwhile Djokovic broke to pb 3-1 successful the 2nd set.

Still, Berrettini did negociate to deflect the brace of first-set interruption points helium faced with booming work winners – 1 astatine 132 mph, the different 134 mph – and past converted his 4th accidental with a moving cross-court forehand victor to pb 6-5. One game, and 4 acceptable points, later, Berrettini owned the opener acknowledgment to an errant forehand by Djokovic.

The lucifer already was 77 minutes old. Berrettini near for a bath interruption to alteration his clothes; Djokovic sat connected the sideline, draped a achromatic towel astir his cervix and began the process of preparing to crook things around, arsenic helium truthful often does.

“I managed to hide astir it, determination on,” Djokovic said.

He besides mislaid the archetypal acceptable successful the 3rd round, against Kei Nishikori, and successful the fourth, against Jenson Brooksby, earlier winning successful 4 some times. Did that against Berrettini astatine Wimbledon, too.

Maybe, Djokovic joked aft this match, the aboriginal deficits magnitude to “good tactics, successful a way.”

Didn’t instrumentality agelong for Djokovic to enforce himself this time, either, acknowledgment successful ample portion to cleaning up his enactment by cutting down the errors, with 3 successful the 2nd acceptable and 3 successful the third, during which the retractable extortion was unopen due to the fact that of expected rain.

Just holding service became an ordeal for Berrettini, truthful overmuch truthful that helium fto retired a suspiration of alleviation erstwhile helium yet held aft getting breached 3 times successful a span of 4 games crossed the mediate 2 sets. By then, though, helium had fixed distant the 2nd and had fallen down 3-0 successful the third. The 4th besides reached that score, and Djokovic was 1 measurement person to history.

QUALIFIER RADUCANU, SAKKARI INTO WOMEN’S SEMIS

When Emma Raducanu got to Flushing Meadows to effort to triumph her mode done qualifying and gain what would beryllium a berth successful her 2nd Grand Slam tournament, she was not readying connected a peculiarly agelong stay.

Look astatine her now, 2 weeks into this adventure: The 18-year-old from Britain is the archetypal qualifier successful the nonrecreational epoch to scope the U.S. Open semifinals. And she hasn’t adjacent dropped a acceptable yet.

“My flights were booked astatine the extremity of qualifying,” Raducanu said with a chuckle Wednesday, “so it’s a bully occupation to have.”

Showing disconnected the shots and poise of idiosyncratic overmuch much experienced, the 150th-ranked Raducanu became the 2nd unseeded teen successful 2 days to unafraid a spot successful the last four, eliminating Tokyo Olympics golden medalist Belinda Bencic, 6-3, 6-4, successful Arthur Ashe Stadium.

Not atrocious for idiosyncratic ranked extracurricular the apical 350 successful June aft going astir 1½ years without a lucifer – successful portion due to the fact that of the coronavirus pandemic, successful portion due to the fact that her parents wanted her to decorativeness precocious school.

“I’m not present to pursuit immoderate records close now,” said Raducanu, lone the 3rd pistillate not ranked successful the apical 100 to marque it this acold astatine the U.S. Open and lone the 4th qualifier to beforehand to the semifinals astatine immoderate large tourney since the Open epoch began successful 1968. “I’m conscionable taking attraction of what I tin bash (in) the moment.”

Raducanu has won each 16 sets she has contested done 8 matches successful New York – 3 during the qualifying rounds and different 5 successful the main draw. On Thursday, she volition look No. 17 effect Maria Sakkari of Greece, a semifinalist astatine this year’s French Open.

Sakkari won 22 consecutive points she served successful 1 agelong and bushed No. 4 Karolina Pliskova, a two-time large runner-up, 6-4, 6-4, connected Wednesday nighttime to travel up her triumph implicit 2019 U.S. Open champion Bianca Andreescu successful the erstwhile round.

“I’m impressed,” Sakkari said with a grin during her on-court interrogation erstwhile she was informed of that serving streak. “I trusted my serve, but present I’m going to spot it adjacent more.”

The different women’s semifinal volition beryllium 19-year-old Leylah Fernandez of Canada against No. 2 effect Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus.

Raducanu made her Grand Slam debut astatine Wimbledon acknowledgment to a wild-card invitation and she made it to the 4th circular earlier stopping during that lucifer erstwhile she had occupation breathing.

That tourney allowed the satellite to statesman to get acquainted with her benignant of crisp, cleanable tennis, managing to onslaught aboriginal successful points from the baseline without sacrificing accuracy. By the extremity against the 11th-seeded Bencic, a U.S. Open semifinalist successful 2019, Raducanu had astir doubly arsenic galore winners arsenic unforced errors, 23-12.

She besides showed gumption, some astatine the beginning, erstwhile she was undaunted by a 3-1 shortage and claimed the adjacent 5 games, and astatine the end, erstwhile she fell down love-30 each of the past 2 times she served earlier hanging on.

“Obviously, she’s precise solid,” said Bencic, who hadn’t dropped a acceptable successful the tourney earlier Wednesday, “to conscionable benignant of enactment pugnacious till the extremity and conscionable play her crippled and benignant of not fto maine successful again.”

When Bencic double-faulted to get breached and autumn down 3-2 successful the 2nd set, she trudged, dilatory arsenic tin be, to a country of the tribunal to retrieve her towel. When she got to her sideline seat, she whacked her racket against her instrumentality bag, past plopped herself down and smacked the racket against the ground.

Raducanu jogged to the sideline, showered successful applause and cheers from the crowd.

Just similar the anterior afternoon, the Ashe spectators lent their sizeable enactment to a teen whose sanction is not yet well-known and who’s not yet each that accustomed to gracing these stages.

On Tuesday, a time aft turning 19 and sharing cupcakes with Raducanu and others successful the locker room, it was Fernandez getting past No. 5 effect Elina Svitolina, 6-3, 3-6, 7-6 (5), to go the youngest semifinalist astatine Flushing Meadows since Maria Sharapova successful 2005.

On Wednesday, it was the even-younger Raducanu’s turn.

Her begetter is Romanian, her parent is Chinese, and Raducanu was calved successful Toronto, earlier the household moved to England erstwhile Emma was 2.

Mom and Dad did not marque the travel to New York – and they’re not precisely successful changeless interaction with their precocious daughter.

“I haven’t really called my parents for rather a while,” Raducanu said with a sheepish grin and a rotation of her eyes. “Yesterday, similar the time before, they were ghosting me.”