Relentless Djokovic grinds it out

By Associated Press in New York | China Daily | Updated: 2013-09-07 08:14

Contorting his body while sliding into shots, Novak Djokovic used his typical relentless defense to reach the US Open semifinals for the seventh consecutive year.

Not quite as unflinchingly dominant as he was during his first four matches in the tournament, the top-seeded Djokovic quickly overcame a one-set lull on Thursday night against 21st-seeded Mikhail Youzhny of Russia before nailing down a 6-3, 6-2, 3-6, 6-0 victory.

Djokovic, the 2011 champion at Flushing Meadows, won the first 14 sets he played these two weeks, taking under two hours to advance each time.

But he faltered against Youzhny in the third, when Djokovic made 16 unforced errors and got broken twice - the only service games he lost in the match.

Djokovic will now face ninth-seeded Stanislas Wawrinka, who upset defending champion Andy Murray 6-4, 6-3, 6-2.

Djokovic will be trying to reach his fifth US Open final. In addition to his title, he was the runner-up in New York in 2007, 2010 and 2012. He has won 12 of his 14 tour matches against Wawrinka, including the last 11.

"It's going to be a very close match. I think there's not a clear favorite," Djokovic said. "He showed (against Murray) why he deserves to be top 10 in the world."

Coming off a draining five-set victory over 2001 US Open champion Lleyton Hewitt in the fourth round, Youzhny started slowly on Thursday.

He finally converted his eighth break chance, 100 minutes into the match, in a game that included a lunging retrieval of a drop volley.

That gave him a 3-1 lead in the third set, and when he held serve to go up 4-1, Youzhny let out a guttural yell.

After Djokovic broke back to get within 4-3, he went through another letdown, and double-faulted to lose serve yet again. Youzhny steadied himself and served out the set.

But Djokovic did not permit the rest of his big lead to slip away, breaking in the second game of the fourth set to regain control at 2-0.

"After I lost the third set I definitely tried to regroup and focus on every point individually," said the 26-year-old Djokovic, who hit 32 winners and an unusually high 45 unforced errors.

"It suddenly changed. For some reason I allowed him to come back into the match, started to push the ball, being more passive and allowing him to step into the court.

"It was important for me to get the early break in the fourth.

"I really felt a big relief and just went for my shots and played great."