There was a touch of super in Super Saturday, thanks to Stan the Man supplying the drama. But it may not come close to Monday’s men’s final as the U.S. Open got exactly what it wanted — a Novak Djokovic-Rafael Nadal showdown.
Djokovic and the underdog from Switzerland, Stanislas Wawrinka, put on a thrilling show at Flushing Meadows in a four-hour, five-set semifinal battle.
With the Ashe Stadium crowd serenading the players with standing ovations for their grit, Djokovic rallied from two-sets-to-one down to prevent a major upset, and rang up a 2-6, 7-6, 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 victory to advance to his fourth straight Open Finals appearance.
“Wawrinka was a better player for most of the better part of the match because he was aggressive and played better tennis,’’ Djokovic said. “I just tried to hang on and fight and be mentally tough. I sincerely believed as the match progresses and longer it goes, I had that physical edge over him.’’
Nadal joined Djokovic a couple of hours later in a semifinal without any of the theatre of Saturday’s high drama at noon.
The second-seeded Nadal won a snoozer over No. 8 Richard Gasquet, beating the Frenchman 6-4, 7-6, 6-2 in 2:21. Nadal, who advanced to his 18th career Grand Slam final, leads the series with Djokovic 21-15 and certainly looked the sharper player yesterday.
Nadal and Djokovic have met in two prior Open Finals, splitting them.
“He’s a great champion,’’ Nadal said. “It will be a tough final for me.’’
For much of the sunny afternoon, the ninth-seeded Wawrinka was in control of Djokovic, hurting him with his one-handed backhand and booming serve, giving the Open more thrills than anticipated. It shouldn’t have been a shock after their five-set, five-hour, fourth-round match at the Australian Open. But the 28-year-old Swiss was making his first Grand Slam semifinal appearance and made it memorable.
“I was quite nervous at the start of the match,” Djokovic said. “He had nothing to lose.’’
When it ended, Wawrinka was showered with a prolonged standing ovation by the crowd as he was trying to conduct his post-match interview. Wawrinka was teary-eyed. His countryman and buddy, Roger Federer, would understand.
“It was a great feeling,’’ Wawrinka said. “That’s why you play tennis. It’s to play in front of people like today in the bigger stadium in tennis. It was quite amazing for me.’’
In the classic game of this year’s Open, at 1-1 in the fifth, Wawrinka survived a 21-minute, 12-deuce service game, saving five break points. He won that battle but ultimately lost the war, as the classic game took too much out of him, especially nursing a strained right thigh.
“I guess everybody was thinking whoever wins that game would win the match,’’ Djokovic said. “After he won the game, I thought to myself, ‘ I guess I have to fight against those odds.’ ’’
“Even though I lost that game, I felt like, ‘OK, he’s getting a little bit more tired and maybe this is my chance to step in.’ ”
Wawrinka had his leg injury going into the match, and admitted the 21-minute game was a killer, even though he kept the match on serve in the fifth set. He reinjured his thigh when he slipped to the court in the fourth set and took a 10-minute injury timeout, leaving to get taped.
“I was a little bit struggling physically,’’ Wawrinka said. “I was already quite tired. I was already quite dead physically. I was just trying to stay with him and to fight and to give everything that I had in my body.’’
He used his one-handed backhand to keep Djokovic off balance in taking a 1-0 and 2-1 lead in sets. Wawrinka said he hadn’t checked his messages but figured he had one from Federer, as he usually does.
“I think it was much more nervous than normal,’’ Wawrinka said. “[Djokovic] is No. 1 for a reason. That’s why he won the match because he always finds a solution.’’
Djokovic had beaten Wawrinka 10 straight times entering Saturday but needed five sets to outlast him in the fourth round at the Australian Open in January.
Before the last point of that classic game early in the fifth set, with Wawrinka holding an advantage point, the fans stood for nearly 45 seconds cheering the players. Wawrinka smiled and Djokovic waved his arms as the ovation raged on. Wawrinka then bombed a serve to end the marathon game to stay on serve at 2-1.
But Wawrinka had nothing left and Djokovic broke him on his subsequent service game. Wawrinka played two stinker points, rushing in for a backhand volley that he flubbed to set up a break point. Then he banged a backhand long, giving Djokovic the 3-2 lead.
Now Nadal awaits. The thrills may only be beginning.