The story appears on

Page B8

September 11, 2012

GET this page in PDF

Free for subscribers

View shopping cart

Related News

Home » Sports » Tennis

Final foes watch Cup qualifier together

SCOTSMAN Andy Murray and Serbia's Novak Djokovic, who were to battle it out for the US Open title late yesterday, watched their countries battle to a goal-less draw in the World Cup qualifying on Saturday.

The rivals got together before British third seed Murray defeated Czech sixth seed Tomas Berdych 5-7, 6-2, 6-1, 7-6 (9/7) to view the telecast from Glasgow's Hampden Park.

"We watched it together," Djokovic said. "We watched before his semifinal. We took the computer and we watched.

"We tried to be quiet, but inside we were cheering for our own national teams."

It was the opening match for Scotland and Serbia in their soccer World Cup qualifying campaign for a spot in the 2014 finals in Brazil.

Defending champion Djokovic had his match against Spain's David Ferrer halted on Saturday because of an approaching storm. The match resumed on Sunday and Djokovic advanced 2-6, 6-1, 6-4, 6-2.

Under a cloudless blue sky, in only a hint of wind, Djokovic got his game into high gear and reached his third consecutive final at Flushing Meadows.

"I was a different player," the second-seeded Serb said. "I felt much more comfortable on the court today than I did yesterday, (when) obviously the conditions were more brutal."

Ferrer led a shaky Djokovic 5-2 in the semifinal's opening set on Saturday, when wind was whipping at more than 20 mph.





 

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