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Djokovic books US Open quarter-final with Federer possible foe
NEW YORK, Sept 4, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – Novak Djokovic did his part to set up a
blockbuster quarter-final clash with Roger Federer at the US Open on Monday
with a 6-3, 6-4, 6-3 victory over unseeded Joao Sousa.
Djokovic, who ended a 54-week title drought with his 13th Grand Slam crown
at Wimbledon, will play the winner of a night match between five-time US Open
champion Federer and John Millman.
Should 20-time major winner Federer get through against the 55th-ranked
Australian, he’ll set up his earliest Grand Slam meeting with Djokovic since
2007, when Federer beat the Serb star to reach the Australian Open quarter-
finals.
Djokovic, whose 3-3 record against Federer at Flushing Meadows includes
victories over the Swiss great in the 2011 and 2015 finals, said he was
relieved to get past 68th-ranked Sousa in straight sets as temperatures
soared again.
“Very happy to get this one done in straight sets,” said Djokovic, who
left the court for a lengthy toilet break after the second set and departed
again for evaluation during a medical timeout early in the third before
returning to wrap things up in exactly two hours.
Sousa, who got past 12th-seeded Pablo Carreno Busta and No. 17 Luca
Pouille to become the first Portugese man to reach a Grand Slam last 16, was
“not happy” at Djokovic’s first lengthy absence from the court, although he
acknowledged there was no rule limiting time of a comfort break.
More damaging may have been his ire at the chair umpire’s refusal to allow
a line call challenge in the seventh game of the final set on grounds he
gestured too late.
Distracted, he was broken at love in the next game and Djokovic served out
the match without fuss.
“It was much more difficult than the score indicated,” said Djokovic, who
said he struggled with a “couple of things” during the match but that the
heat “was the adversity today”.
“You can’t do anything but try to be tough and survive, find a way to
win,” he said.
Kei Nishikori, runner-up in 2014, was also pleased to get through in three
sets in blazing sunshine on Louis Armstrong Stadium.
– Really lucky –
After racing through the first two sets against Germany’s Philipp
Kohlschreiber he dropped his serve while serving for the match at 5-4 in the
third, but managed to prevail 6-3, 6-2, 7-5.
“Man, really lucky to finish in three sets,” Nishikori said. “It was very
hot on the court even though it doesn’t look too hot it’s hit me.”
Nishikori will fight for a semi-final berth against Croatian Marin Cilic,
who beat him in the 2014 final.
That remains Nishikori’s best Grand Slam showing. After reaching a career-
high fourth in the world in 2015 he slid down the rankings as a wrist injury
sidelined him for six months, keeping him out of last year’s US Open and this
year’s Australian Open.
Seventh-seeded Cilic, who needed eight match points in a five-set marathon
against Australian teenager Alex de Minaur spilled into Sunday morning
survived some tense moments to get past 10th-ranked Belgian David Goffin 7-6
(8/6), 6-2, 6-4.
Goffin served for the first set at 5-4 before Cilic went on to win the
tiebreaker.
From there things got easier, Cilic saying that Goffin confided after the
match he had a shoulder problem.
But Cilic still needed a third match point to clinch it.
“I was thinking one match point, second match point — I hope it’s not
going to the eighth one,” Cilic said,
BSS/AFP/BZC/1055HRS