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US Open 2014: Novak Djokovic beats heat and Philipp Kohlschreiber US Open 2014: Novak Djokovic beats heat and Philipp Kohlschreiber
(about 3 hours later)
Form, seedings and performance say Novak Djokovic is the man to beat in this US Open, whatever the steady clamour for Roger Federer, who is still cruising through the draw in second gear. If Andy Murray is to win the US Open, he will have to do to Novak Djokovic in the quarter-finals on Wednesday what he did to him in the final two years ago: break his heart. On the evidence of their contrasting wins in the fourth round on Monday, that is not a sound betting proposition, although if the Scot can draw on his considerable store of perversity, he could surprise us all.
There have been passages of brilliance in the first eight days here when the Serb has looked as good as he did in that long, unbeaten run in 2011, and he produced enough of them to beat Philipp Kohlschreiber with plenty to spare in the fourth round on Monday. A couple of hours after Djokovic had methodically dismantled the stubborn resistance of Philipp Kohlschreiber in straight sets, the 2012 champion was making slightly harder work of Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in the late-afternoon heat on Arthur Ashe. He won 7-5, 7-5, 6-4 in two hours and 25 minutes – about 20 minutes longer than it took Djokovic to beat the German 6-1, 7-5, 6-4 on Louis Armstrong, the court Murray regards as some malign architectural plot against his expansive running game. At least from this point on, he will be on the main court. If that journey is to last beyond his 21st match against the world No 1 (he trails Djokovic 8-12), he should be reaching championship pitch.
Kohlschreiber, good as he can be on his best day, was only occasionally at Djokovic’s level in stifling conditions on Andy Murray’s least favourite court, Louis Armstrong, where the world No1 confirmed his tournament favouritism by winning 6-1, 7-5, 6-4 in just over two hours. Murray was subdued but reasonably satisfied with his performance. “I don’t feel like I’m that far away from playing my best tennis,” he said. “It’s still a long way from trying to win the tournament: nine sets now, three matches, and just try and take it one set at a time. I’m maybe five, six days away from potentially winning another grand slam. I know there is a lot of work to be done between now and then.”
“It was very humid for both of us,” Djokovic said, “with a lot of long rallies, especially in the second and third. It could have gone either way, especially in the second set. I love this sport, play it with a lot of passion. I have a great team around me, great support from my family, and from my country. That keeps me going day in day out, but it’s not easy. Boris [Becker, his coach] and I have gotten very close now after eight months, spending a lot of time together on and off the court. He’s very experienced in these situations and that is what I get out of it the most.” As a veteran American tennis writer said on our way out of the press conference, “He always talks as if he’s got his toe caught in a mangle. He should learn to enjoy these moments.” That has never been the deal. The joy is for later; right now, he’s in the middle of his shift.
Federer, briefly interrupted by stormy weather, returned from 5-2 down in the first set on Sunday night refreshed and in a hurry to avoid further disruptions and brushed aside the Spaniard Marcel Granollers for the further loss of four games. He might find Granollers’ compatriot, Roberto Bautista Agut, a little tougher to crack in their fourth-round tie on Tuesday. As for Tsonga, the ninth seedexplained his erratic tennis simply: “Tennis is never a straight line. Maybe today the line was like this [indicating a dip] at the wrong moment. But it was still pretty good tennis.”
The second seed has had no perceptible grief beating the unseeded Australians Marinko Matosevic and Sam Groth, although he was off his game in the first set against Granollers. Now the standard rises again and he is rightly wary of Agut, who has won titles on three different surfaces this year. Murray, of course, had much to do with Tsonga’s dilemma, selecting the slumps in the Frenchman’s energy to strike hard in each set. While this was not the Murray of 2012 – or Wimbledon 2013, when he was similarly tough in the final against Djokovic – he will take consolation from the fact that he added consistency to his tennis, something that was palpably missing in his first-round match against Robin Haase and on Sunday against Andrey Kuznetsov, when he dropped a set each time.
“He’s done extremely well,” Federer acknowledged. “He’s quick on his feet. He doesn’t miss much. He’s consistent. He’s got a pretty good first serve. I would assume he’s fit, too, because he comes from the Spanish tennis school, where they just know how to train hard. They never get tired. They’re always ready to go. They have a good mental approach, point-for-point mentality. This was closer to the performance he put in on Ashe on Thursday night – his favourite venue and time of day – against Matthias Bachinger. He was near flawless then, less so here, but there were encouraging signs he is getting sharper all round.
“Then again he’s not the typical Spaniard with a lot of topspin. He plays unbelievably flat, which is very surprising for a Spaniard.” Murray continues to make a good friend of the net. Against Haase he won 25 of 39 visits; in the second round against Bachinger he upped his percentage with 22 successful raids from 26; against Kuznetsov, it was 29 from 33; and on Monday he kept Tsonga guessing with his forward rushes, winning 28 of 31 net points.
Djokovic, meanwhile, is building up his own head of steam, determined to kill a few lingering ghosts. He is in the quarter-finals for the eighth year in a row here – and 22nd consecutively in majors since Kohlschreiber put him out in the third round at Roland Garros five years ago. But he hungers for more than lower-level statistics. The most emphatic of those was the backhand volley to take the first set, struck with thunder after pinning Tsonga deep with an equally firm forehand. When Murray plays like this he is irresistible. There was evidence of it in patches thereafter but he owed his win to stickability and doggedness, looking particularly spent after winning the second set. The third saw Tsonga’s game fall slowly to pieces, with two double faults in his final service game a sad sign-off to a tournament in which he has occasionally looked magnificent.
He has won the title only once in four consecutive finals, beating Rafael Nadal in a classic match three years ago. The final he remembers least fondly, perhaps, was the one against Andy Murray in 2012 when the Scot beat him at tennis and toughness, draining his legs with extended rallies in early exchanges before delivering the rapier in a fraught but quick final set. There have been passages of brilliance in the first eight days here when Djokovic has looked as good as he did in that long, unbeaten run in 2011, and he produced enough of them to beat Kohlschreiber with plenty to spare.
And what has plainly consumed Djokovic in this middle run of his career has been his inability to find the consistent finishing brilliance with which he first challenged the hegemony of Roger Federer and Nadal. He won five of his first seven major finals, then lost five of his next six. The German, as good as he can be on his best day, was only occasionally at the Serb’s level in stifling conditions. “It was very humid for both of us,” Djokovic said, “with a lot of long rallies, especially in the second and third. It could have gone either way, especially in the second set.” That hardly told the story of Djokovic’s excellent serving (six aces, no double faults, 78 per cent winning points on first serve, 68 on second), or his low unforced error count of 19.
Those stats have worried him over the past couple of years and he also came to New York this year inexplicably down, insisting his recent marriage and the impending arrival of their first child had not distracted him, yet going out weakly against Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in Toronto, then folding against Tommy Robredo in Cincinnati. “It’s great that I have been playing some really good tennis, really high quality so far,” he said. “But it’s normal to expect that I’m going to have tougher opponents as the tournament goes on. A quarter-final against Murray, it’s a very tough draw.”
However, in putting away Sam Querrey, Paul-Henri Mathieu and Diego Schwartzman in the first week here, he was broken only four times and converted 21 of 36 break points. Against Kohlschreiber, he saved both the break points against him. He is in the quarter-finals for the eighth year in a row – and 22nd consecutively in slams since Ernests Gulbis put him out in the third round at Roland Garros four years ago. But he hungers for more than lower-level statistics. What he wants is success where it matters, on the final day.
When he is playing like this, simultaneously safe and dangerous, he is almost impossible to dismantle at the back of the court and difficult to resist when he stretches out that deceptively slim chest, like a predatory eagle, and gives vent to his power down either wing. He has won the title once in four consecutive finals, beating Rafael Nadal in a classic match three years ago. But what has consumed Djokovic at what should be the peak of his career has been his inability to regularly find the game with which he first challenged the hegemony of Roger Federer and Nadal. He won five of his first seven slam finals, then lost five of his next six.
The first set was a 25-minute cakewalk; the second not exactly a bed of nails, although Djokovic pumped the air after fighting through deuce to serve it out in just under an hour. However, in putting away Sam Querrey, Paul-Henri Matthieu and Diego Schwartzman in the first week here, he did not drop serve, was broken only four times and converted 21 of 36 break points. Against Kohlschreiber he saved the only two break points against him.
Serena Williams is another of the game’s champions who arrived at Flushing Meadows with patchy form, only blowing away her post-Wimbledon blues in Cincinnati, where she looked near her best again, then slowly working her way through her side of the draw here to reach the quarter-finals with a routine 65-minute, 6-3, 6-3 win over Estonia’s Kaia Kanepi on Monday. He looks ready to do some damage.
She will probably find more resistance from Flavia Pennetta, who earlier had a brief first-set wobble before beating the Australian Casey Delacqua 7-5, 6-2.
If Williams gets past the Italian, she plays either Peng Shuai, who put out the fourth seed, Agnieszka Radwanska, in the first round, or the Swiss Belinda Bencic, at 17 the youngest quarter-finalist since Martina Hingis in 1997. Bencic, coached by Hingis’s mother, played one of the best matches of her short career on Sunday night to beat the ninth seed, Jelena Jankovic.
On the other side of the draw Caroline Wozniacki will have the crowd with her again, no doubt, in her quarter-final on Tuesday against the Italian Sara Errani.