Djokovic shakes off rust
TOP seed Novak Djokovic, starved for competitive action, feasted against unseeded Briton Kyle Edmund, gobbling up a large serving of points in a 6-2 6-1 6-4 romp yesterday that put him into the US Open quarter-finals.
Djokovic had a second-round walkover as Czech Jiri Vesely withdrew because of injury, and was leading 4-2 in his third-round match when Russian Mikhail Youzhny retired with a leg ailment making it six days since his last full match.
The Serb kept himself busy on practice courts but looked elated to cut loose against an actual opponent, making Edmund the target of his arsenal of rifled groundstroke, angled volleys, pinpoint passing shots, lobs and drop shots.
“Feels great to play a match,” Djokovic said. “I haven’t played much tennis.
“Baseline shots were working very well. Think I was most pleased with that.”
After the first two lopsided sets, Edmund made the third set competitive and was on serve at 4-4 before the Serb closed out the set to end the match.
Djokovic’s victory put him into the last eight against ninthseeded Frenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, a 6-3 6-3 6-7(7) 6-2 winner against American 26th seed Jack Sock.
Meanwhile, Rafa Nadal said he was sad to have squandered an opportunity to do something special at the US Open with his fourth-round loss at Flushing Meadows, but happy with his effort and prospects going forward this season.
“I fought until the end,” Nadal said about his 6-1 2-6 6-4 3-6 7-6 loss to 22-year-old Frenchman Lucas Pouille yesterday. “There were things I could do better. I had the right attitude. I fought right up to the last ball.
“But I need something else, I need something more that was not there today. I’m going to keep working to try to find.”
Nadal came back from more than two months of inaction because of a wrist injury that forced him out of the French Open and Wimbledon to compete last month at the Rio Olympics and won gold in doubles with Marc Lopez, and reached the singles semi-finals.
While he reports continued improvement in his left wrist, the 30-year-old Spaniard knows he still has a way to go.
“Is true that I don’t have lot of matches on my shoulders for the last three, four months, but even like this I lost an opportunity,” Nadal said. “I lost an opportunity to have a very good event here. I am sad for that.
“I need to keep improving the level of tennis to be back where I was before the injury.”
Nadal said that although the Grand Slam season was over, he still had goals.
“I have the motivation to keep working,” he said.
“I have a few months to finish the season, to try to be qualified for the World Tour finals. That will be a good effort, if I make that happen after two months and a half without competition. I (am) going to fight for it.”
Jo-Wilfried Tsonga booked his third trip to the US Open quarter-finals by dropping American Jack Sock in four sets in their fourth-round match.
Ninth seed Tsonga, 31, breezed through the first two sets but 26th-seeded Sock forced a thirdset tiebreak and fought off a match point before taking it 9-7.
That was merely a delay of execution for Sock, though, as his French opponent quickly finished the job for a 6-3 6-3 6-7 6-2 victory.
The Frenchman won on his third match point when Sock sent a forehand wildly beyond the sideline and celebrated with a jumping spin and some fist pumps. Tsonga, the 2003 US Open junior champion, will seek his first US Open semi-final after reaching semi-finals at each of the other three Grand Slam championships.