The US Open seems to be Novak Djokovic’s best tournament. He’s reached the semis for the third time in a row, and for the fourth time, he’ll face Roger Federer.
Novak struggled a bit with Gael Monfils in one set, but then he buckled down in the second set while Monfils gave in. The third set was not that close either. Final score: 7-6(2), 6-1, 6-2.
Roger Federer looked like he’d be in a struggle against Robin Soderling’s power, but Soderling’s consistency was affected by the wind while Federer generally server lights out, winning many of his serves at love. Even so, there were many breaks in the match. Roger broke once for the only break in the first set. Then, for sets 2 and 3, Robin had one break while Roger had 2. Roger resorted to the drop shots with mixed success, usually more positive than negative, but in the end, his 18 aces meant a lot of easy holds.
In the third set, Soderling was up a break and serving for the set when Federer broke, then held, then broke again, then held at love. Federer has yet to drop a set this tournament.
Djokovic has almost had as much success. His closest match was against compatriot, Victor Troicki, in the heat of the first week, where he dropped two sets, but won the critical fifth set.
It’s hard to gauge Djokovic’s form, but Federer has beaten him 3 of the last 4 times they’ve played and all but once whenever they’ve met in a Slam. Needless to say, Federer has beaten Djokovic every time they’ve met in the US Open, including last year’s famous match with the tweener at 0-30. It’ll be interesting to see what Djokovic can do.
Meanwhile Federer does what Federer does which is reach semifinals. Barring a fabulous performance by Verdasco, it looks like Nadal will reach the finals of the US Open for the first time. Nadal has tamed his wild shots and seems to be serving as well as ever, but Roger also seems to be serving quite well, and has had the virtue of playing 3 lefties, though none the caliber of Nadal.
Ah, Nadal is playing Verdasco in the quarterfinals, so I think he can get past Verdasco, especially since Verdasco had to go 5 sets. In the other quarterfinals, Mikhail Youzhny takes on Stan Wawrinka. Both play similar styles. They are aggressive one-handed backhands. They are tied 2-2 in head-to-head meetings. Stan has won 2 matches on clay while Youzhny has won 2 on hardcourts. Wawrinka had the tougher route to get to the quarterfinals, having played 5 sets and the later match while Youzhny won in 4 sets.
So, based on that, I’d slightly favor Youzhny to win. If he does win, it could be interesting because Youzhny has beaten Nadal at the US Open. Personally, I don’t think either man can beat Nadal, but they have the kind of game to bother him somewhat. Nadal generally has to cooperate to lose (i.e., make many errors).
So far, the US Open has been a tale of two tournaments. There was the heat of the first week which ended with a miss of Hurricane Earl, followed by the cooler temperatures but blustery wind of the second week. Almost makes you wish there was one Slam played completely indoors, but the logistics of building large numbers of indoor courts might be an issue.
