Top seeds Serena Williams and Novak Djokovic played ruthless tennis on
Tuesday to crush Spanish opposition and advance with ease at the U.S.
Open.
From an ace on the first point to a stinging return on the last, Serena
Williams was close to perfect in the U.S. Open quarterfinals and that
was reflected in the 6-0, 6-0 scoreline against Carla Suarez Navarro.
Chasing her fifth title at Flushing Meadows, the No. 1-ranked defending
champion recorded the first “double bagel” in a quarterfinal at the U.S.
Open since 1989, when 18-time major title winner Martina Navratilova
did it to Manuela Maleeva.
“When you play against Serena,” Suarez Navarro said, “you know these things can happen.”
Williams won 53 of 71 points and dominated the statistical categories.
The first set took all of 19 minutes. The second was slower, lasting 33
minutes, but no less lopsided.
Williams was asked whether she’d describe her performance as close to flawless.
“Of course not,” the defending champion said with a laugh. “I played
good, though. I played really good. I was just more focused than
anything. I like to believe there is room for improvement.”
That might be bad news for her opponent in Friday’s semifinals, 2011 French Open champion Li Na of China.
Through five matches, Williams has dropped a total of 13 games. Suarez
Navarro lost more games than that in her previous match alone, 15, while
eliminating No. 8 Angelique Kerber.
That victory, and her seeding, should have demonstrated that Suarez
Navarro is quite capable of playing well, too. But not on this evening.
Not against Williams, who is 65-4 with eight titles in 2013.
Going back to the start of Wimbledon last year, the 31-year-old American
is 96-5 with 13 trophies, including from three of the past five Grand
Slam tournaments plus the London Olympics.
“The conditions were so tough, so it definitely was not her best tennis
today,” Williams said about Suarez Navarro, who was playing in her third
career major quarterfinal, and it was on her 25th birthday.
The swirling wind in Arthur Ashe Stadium sure did not appear to bother
Williams, who had a 20-3 edge in winners. She made fewer unforced
errors, 12-9. She won 23 of 26 points on first serves.
“I’ve been playing here for, like, 50 years,” Williams said with a
laugh. “I’ve kind of gotten used to the conditions. Even though it’s
difficult to play each year, I’m getting a little bit better with it.”
Djokovic hammered Marcel Granollers 6-3, 6-0, 6-0 and booked a place in
the quarterfinals. Djokovic, fighting to hold onto his world number one
ranking against Rafael Nadal, will face Mikhail Youzhny after the
Russian beat 2001 winner Lleyton Hewitt 6-3, 3-6, 6-7 (3-7), 6-4, 7-5 in
a four-hour epic.
Djokovic stormed through in less than 90 minutes against Granollers, who
was coming off three five-set matches. The Serb top seed reached his
18th straight grand slam quarter-final and has not lost in the fourth
round of a major since January, 2007 in Australia.
Djokovic ripped 34 winners to just eight for his Spanish opponent, who lost the first 25 points on Djokovic’s serve.
“I’ve played one of the best matches of my life. I played a flawless tennis”, said the winner.
“This comes at a great time for me. I wanted to be more aggressive as
the tournament progressed and to be able to stay committed to play every
point, to win every point, regardless of what’s the score.
“I’m very happy with my mental state, how I feel physically, and the way
I played.” Youzhny rallied from deficits in the fourth and fifth sets
to hold off Hewitt, who suffered a huge disappointment after leading 4-1
in the fourth set.
“It’s obviously disappointing to lose, but I left it all out there.
There’s not a whole heap more I could have done. It obviously could have
gone either way. There was a lot of momentum changes, yeah, right from
the start,” said the Australian, 32.
Hewitt had been seeking his first New York quarter-final since 2006.
In women’s play, second seed Victoria Azarenka needed a wake-up call
after sleeping through the opening set to complete her 4-6, 6-3, 6-4
defeat of Serb Ana Ivanovic to reach the quarter-finals.
The postponed Monday match sent the world number two and double
Australian Open champion into a match with Slovak Daniela Hantuchova.
The women combined for 17 double-faults but only produced six aces.
Azarenka broke nine times while losing her own serve on seven occasions
in the momentum-shifting contest.
“Ana came out firing,” said Azarenka, who won her fourth match in a row
in the series to now stand 5-2. “She played amazing in the first set; I
felt out of place.
“I was sleeping and she was ripping winners, serving great. I had to
wake up in the second after the first slipped away. I was more
determined and focused on taking my opportunities.” China’s Li Na was
made to work as she booked the first of the semi-final spots and became
the first Chinese to get this far at Flushing Meadows.
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