The story appears on

Page A16

September 5, 2013

GET this page in PDF

Free for subscribers

View shopping cart

Related News

Home » Sports » Tennis

Djokovic blitzes Granollers, Murray wins

Showing the sort of beginning-to-end focus he’ll need to win the US Open, top-seeded Novak Djokovic strung together 13 straight games to close out a 6-3, 6-0, 6-0 thrashing of Marcel Granollers on Tuesday and advance to his 18th straight Grand Slam quarterfinal.

With such imperious form, Djokovic could be forgiven for taking a quarterfinal win — over Mikhail Youzhny — for granted and be looking forward to a semifinal clash with defending champion Andy Murray.

Murray was less convincing in his win over Denis Istomin, beating the unseeded Uzbek 6-7 (5), 6-1, 6-4, 6-4 to set up a last-eight clash with Stanislas Wawrinka.

On Tuesdays form, Djokovic will present a formidable hurdle to Murray’s hopes of going back-to-back at Flushing Meadows.

“Today, second and third set have been some of the best tennis that I’ve played on Arthur Ashe in my career,” said Djokovic, who has made the final here the last three years and won it in 2011.

Murray had a poor first-set tiebreak — losing the last four points after having led 5-3 — but reasserted his command over Istomin with a break in the first game of the second and swept to victory.

Next up for Djokovic is Youzhny, who was two points from defeat but came back to edge two-time major champion Lleyton Hewitt 6-3, 3-6, 6-7 (3), 6-4, 7-5.

While Djokovic will be a pronounced favorite against Youzhny, Murray will be at slightly longer odds against Wawrinka, who beat Tomas Berdych 3-6, 6-1, 7-6 (6), 6-2.

Murray leads the head-to-head series against the Swiss 8-5, but they’ve split their two previous meetings at the US Open.

 




 

Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.

沪公网安备 31010602000204号

Email this to your friend