Bencic faces Vondrousova in Olympic eve’s final
TOKYO: Kei Nishikori thought he was playing well. Then he played Novak Djokovic.
The top-ranked Serb never gave Nishikori a chance in a 6-2, 6-0 rout of the home favorite from Japan to reach the semifinals of the tennis tournament at the Tokyo Olympics on Thursday.
The dominant performance advanced Djokovic into the medal rounds and - more importantly - moved him one step closer to finishing off this segment of his Golden Slam bid.
In the women’s tournament, 12th-ranked Belinda Bencic of Switzerland beat Elena Rybakina of Kazakhstan 7-6 (2), 4-6, 6-3 to reach the goldmedal match.
Khachanov beat Ugo Humbert of France 7-6 (4), 4-6, 6-3 and Carreno Busta defeated secondseeded Daniil Medvedev of ROC 6-2, 7-6 (5).
Djokovic, who has already won the Australian Open, French Open and Wimbledon this year, needs the Tokyo Games title and the US Open trophy to become the first man to achieve the Golden Slam.
As it’s been for months, it seems that Djokovic, who has not dropped a set in the tournament, is getting better match by match - so much so that it looks like he’s hardly being tested.
Djokovic added that it was his “best performance” of the tournament.
For the second straight day, Djokovic had two matches scheduled. He’s also playing again later with Serbian partner Nina Stojanovic against the German pair of Laura Siegemund and Kevin Krawietz in the mixed doubles quarterfinals.
German fourth seed Alexander Zverev booked a semi-final date with Golden Slam-chasing Novak Djokovic at the Olympics by seeing off France’s Jeremy Chardy on Thursday.
Zverev, the second highest-ranked player left in the competition after Daniil Medvedev’s exit, swatted aside Chardy 6-4, 6-1 in their last-eight match.
He will face world number one Djokovic in the semis on Friday, looking to end a five-match losing streak against the 20-time major champion.
Zverev, last year’s US Open runner-up, smashed 11 aces past Chardy as he moved within one win of an Olympic medal.
Bencic also had another match scheduled. She was scheduled to play with Swiss partner Viktorija Golubic against the Brazilian pair of Laura Pigossi and Luisa Stefani in the semifinals of the doubles tournament.
If she also wins in doubles, Bencic would become the fifth player to reach two finals at the same Olympics since tennis returned at the Games in 1988, joining Serena and Venus Williams, Andy Murray and Nicolas Massu.
The results means that Switzerland is guaranteed a tennis medal at a fourth consecutive Olympics after Federer and Stan Wawrinka won gold in doubles in 2008, Federer took silver in singles in 2012 and Martina Hingis and Timea Bacsinszky claimed silver in doubles in 2016.
Federer announced a week before the Tokyo Games began that he wouldn’t play at the Olympics because he “experienced a setback” with his knee during the grass-court season. That left Bencic as Switzerland’s most accomplished player in Tokyo and her performance represents a personal breakthrough for someone whose best Grand Slam result was reaching the semifinals at the 2019 US Open.
Play started four hours later than on previous days after organizers finally acted upon a request from players to avoid the hottest part of the day.
In men’s doubles, an all-croatian final was set up between the pairings of Marin Cilic-ivan Dodig and Nikola Mektic-mate Pavic.
Also, the top-seeded Czech duo of Barbora Krejcikova and Katerina Siniakova reached the women’s final. Krejcikova won both the singles and doubles (with Siniakova) titles at this year’s French Open.
Meanwhile, Czech Marketa Vondrousova set up an Olympic women’s tennis final against Belinda Bencic by hammering Ukraine’s Elina Svitolina on Thursday in Tokyo.
Svitolina was the highest-ranked player left in the draw after shock early exits for Naomi Osaka, beaten by Vondrousova, and Ashleigh Barty, but crashed to a 6-3, 6-1 defeat.
Vondrousova, the 2019 French Open runnerup, will take on Switzerland’s Bencic for the title on Saturday.