Novak Djokovic moves into semis as injury-stricken Janko Tipsarevic retires – US Open 2011
After an early stumble in the contest, world number one, Novak Djokovic of Serbia wins the quarter-final clash of the US Open against his fellow compatriot, Janko Tipsarevic, on Thursday.
The 20th ranked Tipsarevic played brilliant tennis to give the top seed some tough before he had to retire from the competition for the reason of a toe injury, letting the top seeded Serb into the semi-final draws of
the last Grand Slam tournament of the year.
The curtailed version of the game went on for three hours and twenty seven minutes, with Djokovic leading the contest at 7-6(2), 6-7(3), 6-0, 3-0, when Tipsarevic withdrew from the competition. The 20th seed Serb took
off the contest in a magnificent manner to surprise the in-form world number one in the earlier parts of the game but his injury wore him out later.
Tipsarevic’s agonising toe injury took its toll out of him in the third set, when he appeared in a terrible condition in the match, struggling with his footwork and spraying a number of errant strokes to let Djokovic come on top.
“Congratulations to Janko for a fantastic tournament and a great effort today,” said Djokovic in an on-court interview with ESPN. “He’s a great friend of mine and it was not easy to play against him. But he’s definitely playing
in the best form of his life and I wish him much more success to come and I hope he recovers.”
The opening set was stuffed with high quality tennis action from the two Serb contestants, battling it out extremely hard to get the early advantage in the contest. Both men registered three serve breaks each to move on neck-to-neck
in the set and dragged the game into a tie breaker round at 6-6. Djokovic blew away his opponent in the decider and took the first set at 7-6(2), after 84 minutes of enthralling competition.
The second set also went to the wire, with a second consecutive tie breaker coming into play. Tipsarevic came on top this time and levelled the matchup at one-all after pocketing the second set in the tie breaker. He went through
a terrible slump in the following set as his sore toe let Djokovic nail three straight serve breaks to rocket away to 6-0.
“I think I sensed early in the third set, when I got a break, he lost a lot of pace on his first serve,” reflected Djokovic in his on-court interview. “He wasn’t able to move as well. It’s really unfortunate in a quarter-final
of a Grand Slam.”
Up next for Djokovic in the semi-final is the world number three, Roger Federer, who took down Jo-Wilfried Tsonga to reach the round of four.
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