A point away from going down two sets to love, Andy Murray’s US Open campaign looked sure to come to a premature end on Wednesday, but by the end of the night, and after the surprise defeat of Roger Federer, the Briton’s title hopes had soared.
Murray was down a set and 5-1 in the second against Marin Cilic, and the contest looked as good as over, but the Croat tightened, Murray seized the opportunity and the match was transformed, with the Scot careering away to win 3-6, 7-6 (4), 6-2, 6-0.
“He got nervous. That was the main difference,” Murray said. “I did start playing better towards the end of the second set, and because I was in it, I started to feel that momentum was with me.”
Photo: EPA
Murray was the first man into the semi-finals and he would have fully expected to meet five-time champion Federer, who had made it to the last four at Flushing Meadows for eight straight years.
However, the Swiss put in a rare error-strewn performance and was beaten by Tomas Berdych 7-6 (1), 6-4, 3-6, 6-3. The Czech is one of the few men on tour who has Federer’s measure, having won four of their past seven matches.
“There is something in my game that he doesn’t like,” Berdych said.
Federer’s 40 unforced errors were nearly twice as many as Berdych’s 21.
“So many moments I thought: ‘Man, it’s just not happening for me,’” Federer said.
Murray had an inkling that Berdych might beat the Swiss. Peppered with questions about Federer during his news conference, Murray — who was sneaking glimpses of the score of the Federer-Berdych match — reminded everyone to -respect the Czech.
He was right, and with no Federer and no Nadal, Murray will rarely get a better opportunity to win that elusive first Grand Slam title, though defending champion Novak Djokovic remained the favorite.
It was an emotional day at the US Open, with 2003 champion Andy Roddick heading into retirement with a 6-7 (1), 7-6 (4), 6-2, 6-4 loss to Juan Martin del Potro.
He choked up during an on-court speech at Arthur Ashe Stadium, telling the crowd: “Oh, wow. For the first time in my career, I’m not sure what to say.”
“Since I was a kid, I’ve been coming to this tournament. I felt lucky just to sit where all of you are sitting today, to watch this game, to see the champions that have come and gone,” Roddick told the fans. “I’ve loved every minute of it.”
Del Potro joined the fans in standing to applaud after Wednesday’s match. He moved on to a quarter-final against Djokovic, who advanced when his opponent, No. 18 Stanislas Wawrinka, retired because of illness and fatigue while trailing 6-4, 6-1, 3-1.
Djokovic’s Serbian Davis Cup teammate, No. 8 Janko Tipsarevic, finished his rain-interrupted 6-3, 7-6 (5), 6-2 victory over No. 19 Philipp Kohlschreiber of Germany, and meets No. 4 David Ferrer of Spain in the quarter-finals.
Four-time major champion Maria Sharapova won her quarter-final, coming from behind after a rain delay for the second consecutive match and defeating 2007 Wimbledon runner-up Marion Bartoli 3-6, 6-3, 6-4.
Sharapova was down 4-0 on Tuesday when play was stopped, but she wound up improving to 12-0 in three-set matches this year.
No Sharapova-like or Murray-esque theatrics were required by Serena Williams, who has won three of her 14 Grand Slam titles at the US Open. She hit 12 aces in her latest dominant performance, a 6-1, 6-3 victory over 2008 French Open champion Ana Ivanovic.
Williams’ semi-final opponent will be 10th-seeded Sara Errani of Italy, who eliminated her good friend and doubles partner, No. 20 Roberta Vinci, in straight sets.
In the women’s doubles quarter-finals, Taiwan’s Hseih Su-wei and Spain’s Anabel Medina Garrigues beat Chuang Chia-jung of Taiwan and China’s Zhang Shuai 6-2, 6-1.
Additional reporting by Staff writer
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier