Sports

Day’s delay a winner for Djoker

A tornado warning caused Novak Djokovic and David Ferrer’s semifinal match to be suspended Saturday after Ferrer was up 5-2 in the first set. When play resumed yesterday, the only tornado in the area was Djokovic, who blew past Ferrer, 2-6, 6-1, 6-4, 6-2 to advance to face Andy Murray in today’s US Open final.

It was a tough ending for Ferrer, who was looking to advance to a Grand Slam final for the first time. He was cruising along, breaking Djokovic twice for a 5-2 lead after 41 minutes on Saturday when severe weather caused the remainder of the match to be pushed back. Ferrer held serve on the opening game to win the first set, 6-2, the only set Djokovic has lost in six rounds here.

“Not difficult. We are professional players,” the classy Ferrer said after the match. “We stopped three times and we come back again to the court. It wasn’t a problem.”

Ferrer, who obviously would have preferred to play in windy conditions which were to his advantage, refused to blame officials for the scheduling. He and Djokovic were the second match Saturday and officials could have had them play on another court while Murray and Tomas Berdych were playing in the other semifinal at Arthur Ashe Stadium. But because of TV coverage and the USTA worrying about refunding tickets, this was not done.

“I don’t want to say nothing about this,” Ferrer said. “Yesterday we played second match. The organization did what they think was the better for the tournament.”

In normal conditions yesterday, Ferrer was overwhelmed by Djokovic, winning just eight of 26 games, and was broken six times on 13 service games.

“He was better. In some games in the third and the fourth set, I lost a little bit [of] my focus, but I think he deserved to win the match,” Ferrer said, before adding he was happy with his tournament overall.

“My second time semifinal here at the U.S. Open. This was the best of my career. Of course I am very positive. I am very happy with my performance.”

Djokovic said he felt a lot better yesterday with the conditions, and the stats backed that up. After being broken twice in the first set Saturday, he held 12 of 13 service games yesterday, and smacked 34 winners.

“It’s a great relief obviously to get it over with in four sets. I was a different player. I felt much more comfortable on the court [yesterday] than I did [Saturday],” Djokovic said. “Ferrer was coping with the conditions much better than I did. He was handling it great. I hadn’t found any rhythm, so I didn’t mind getting off the court [Saturday], to be honest.”

Djokovic, who reached his third-straight U.S. Open final, is 8-6 lifetime against Murray, including a win in the 2011 Australian Open championship, but Murray won their most recent match 7-5, 7-5 in the semifinals of the Olympics.