Beats Berdych 6-3, 7-5, 6-3; AdvanceS to semifinal for record sixth straight time
Still on target to win a fourth straight major title and complete a career Grand Slam, Novak Djokovic advanced to the semifinals at the French Open for a record sixth straight time.
The top-seeded Serb beat Tomas Berdych 6-3, 7-5, 6-3 Thursday, a day after completing a four-set win over Roberto Bautista Agut.
“I’m very pleased to be in semifinals of another Grand Slam,” Djokovic said after reaching his 30th major semifinal. “But because of the fact that I have to play every day, my focus right away goes for recovery and the next match. I don’t have much time.”
Only Roger Federer, with 39 major semifinals, and Jimmy Connors, with 31, have participated in more major semifinals in the Open era.
Djokovic will next face No. 13 Dominic Thiem. The Austrian beat No. 12 David Goffin of Belgium 4-6, 7-6 (7), 6-4, 6-1.
Also, the last two women’s quarterfinal matches were being played with defending champion Serena Williams up against Yulia Putintseva of Kazakhstan, and No. 8 Timea Bacsiszky of Switzerland facing Kiki Bertens of the Netherlands.
A French Open victory would give Djokovic a 12th major title — two less than Rafael Nadal — and would also give him four consecutive Grand Slam titles, something no man has done since Rod laver won all four in 1969.
After winning the first two sets on Thursday, Djokovic was even with Berdych at 3-3 when they stopped playing because of rain. When they returned, Djokovic won the next three games and the match.
Berdych, however, felt the stoppage cost him valuable momentum, and was scathing about the decision to come off in conditions he considered were exactly the same as for most of the match on Court Philippe Chatrier.
“That was one of the worst calls that I ever had on the court,” the Czech player said. “We were playing two-and-a-half sets in the light rain.”
Berdych was also perplexed at the explanation he was given.
“When the referee came down and she told us ‘We wait a few minutes, if it (the rain) stops or not.’” Berdych said. “I was like: ‘Waiting for whatIJ What’s the point of thisIJ’ The court won’t get better. It will get only get worse. We will be sitting in 10 degrees here and there is no sense at all.”
Celebrating his win, Djokovic called a ball boy onto the court and the pair waved to each side of the stadium.
In the other match on Court Suzanne lenglen, Thiem and Goffin were playing in the quarterfinals of a major tournament for the first time.
Besides losing the match, Goffin also briefly lost control of his racket. After the first point of the tiebreaker in the second set, Goffin tossed his racket up in the air but failed to catch it, hitting himself in the face.
Meanwhile, Defending champion Serena Williams pulled out quite a comeback in the French Open quarterfinals, coming back from a set and a break down to beat Yulia Putintseva 5-7, 6-4, 6-1.
How close was Williams to her earliest exit at a Grand Slam tournament since Wimbledon in 2014IJ Putintseva, who is from Kazakhstan and ranked only 60th, twice was a point from serving for the biggest victory of her career.
“She played unbelievable. And I honestly didn’t think I was going to win that in the second set,” said Williams, who will face another unseeded opponent, 58th-ranked Kiki Bertens of the Netherlands, in the semifinals. “Somehow I did.”
Yes, Williams came through, as she so often does, overcoming not only a relentless competitor in Putintseva but also her own shakiness on a cloudy, chilly day that included a brief rain delay in the third game. The No. 1-seeded Williams’ strokes were off, her range was wrong, to the tune of mistake after mistake after mistake.
She made 11 unforced errors before Putintseva committed a single one, and at the end of the first set, the count was 24-2, which seems like it might be a typo but is not. Williams got so desperate at one point that she shifted her racket to her left hand to try a shot that way — and whiffed.
By the end, the unforced error statistics read this way: Williams 43, Putintseva 16.
But by the end, too, Williams was asserting herself as no one else currently on tour can, winding up with twice as many winners as Putintseva, 36-18. And now Williams can continue her quest for a 22nd Grand Slam title, which would equal Steffi Graf’s Open-era record.
Serena Williams’ opponent in the French Open semifinals will be unseeded Kiki Bertens.
The 58th-ranked player from the Netherlands beat eighth-seeded Timea Bacsinszky 7-5, 6-2.
Bertens is deep into unchartered territory. Before this French Open, just once in 15 previous Grand Slam tournaments did she advance beyond the second round — making the fourth round at Roland Garros in 2014.
Bacsinszky is the fourth seeded player to fall to Bertens’ march to the semifinals.
After winning the first set, Bertens got treatment on her left calf, which was taped from the start of the match on a near-deserted Court Suzanne lenglen. She gave a happy thumbs up as the trainer wrapped the muscle in a bandage. The niggle didn’t appear to affect her play or mobility.
Bertens immediately broke Bacsinszky to jump to a 2-0 second-set lead. Her Swiss opponent, who has shown good humor in press appearances at the tournament, grappled with mounting frustration, muttering to herself between points.
On her next service game, Bacsinszky hit a backland long on breakpoint to increase Bertens’ lead to 4-0. Bacsinszky then got a break back and held serve to recover to 2-4.
But Bertens saved three break points in the seventh game to take a 5-2 lead. She hit a crisp backhand winner on her second match point for the victory.
Sania-Dodig enters semi-final
The possibility of Sania Mirza and leander Paes squaring off against each other for the French Open mixed doubles trophy increased as Sania and her Croatian partner Ivan Dodig overcame a mid-match lapse to make the mixed doubles semi-finals of the French Open, here on Thursday.
The second seed Indo-Croat pair overcame a mid-match lapse to beat the seventh seeded Yung-Jan Chan and Max Mirnyi 6-1, 3-6, 10-6 in the quarterfinal contest.
Sania last won a mixed doubles Grand Slam trophy at 2014 US Open with Brazilian partner Bruno Soares. They next face third seeds and local favourites Kristina Mladenovic and Pierre-Hugues Herbert, who got the better of American eighth seeds Bob Bryan and Coco Vandeweghe 2-6, 6-2, 13-11 in their quarterfinal match.
Paes and Sania enter sf with partners
leander Paes on Thursday inched closer towards completing a ‘Career Slam’ in mixed doubles with Swiss partner Martina Hingis but may find compatriot Sania Mirza in his way as the two Indian players reached the semifinals of the French Open, here on Thursday.
Unseeded Paes and Hingis scored a dominating 6-4, 6-3 win over fifth seeds Elena Vesnina and Bruno Soares in the quarterfinals of the clay court Major.
They next face third seeds and local favourites Kristina Mladenovic and Pierre-Hugues Herbert, who got the better of American eighth seeds Bob Bryan and Coco Vandeweghe 2-6, 6-2 ,13-11 in their quarterfinal match.
Paes and Hingis, winners of Australian Open, Wimbledon and US OPen in 2015, next face sixth seeds Andrea Hlavackova from Czech Republic and Frenchman Edouard Roger-Vasselin.