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World number ones Novak Djokovic and Serena Williams are both just one win away from reaching the US Open final for another year, but Australian Open champion Stanislas Wawrinka and former world number one Victoria Azarenka crashed out after both suffered unexpected defeats.
Djokovic, shooting for a second title at Flushing Meadows after previously winning in 2011, was faced with his first serious test of the tournament when he took on 2012 champion Andy Murray.
who defeated him in five sets in that year’s final, in the second night match on Arthur Ashe Stadium.
The Djoker knew he was going to be in for a very tough time against his Scottish rival, who has struggled to regain the form which saw him also win Wimbledon last year.
And indeed, the match lived up to expectations with tiebreaks required to decide the first two sets. Djokovic dominated the first after initially leading 3-1, while Murray dominated the second to level the match at one set apiece.
However, from there it was one-way traffic as Djokovic marched into the final four of the US Open for the eighth consecutive year to leave Murray waiting to break his title drought.
The Scot is in danger of recording his first full season without winning a title or reaching a final since initially debuting on the ATP World Tour in 2005. His title drought is now fourteen months and counting.
As the saying goes, New York is the city that never sleeps, and it lived up to that reputation with the match finishing at 1:15am local time.
The late finish was due to the marathon match between Stan Wawrinka and Japan’s Kei Nishikori, with Nishikori becoming the first man from his country to reach a Grand Slam semifinal in almost a century.
Nishikori backed up his late-finishing five-set victory over Milos Raonic with another five sets. His reward now is a semifinal showdown against world number one Djokovic.
At the time of writing the other men’s semifinal was still to be decided, with Tomas Berdych and Roger Federer both favoured to progress when they face Marin Cilic and Gael Monfils respectively.
In the women’s draw, the semifinal line-up is complete with Serena Williams and Ekaterina Makarova to meet in the top half after both defeated Flavia Pennetta and Victoria Azarenka in their respective quarter-finals.
Williams overcame an ankle injury to move through to the final four for the sixth time in the last seven years. Her next opponent, Makarova, is very familiar, as Williams lost to the left-handed Russian in the 2012 Australian Open.
However, Williams did win their most recent meeting at this level, romping to a 6-4, 6-0 win in the third round at Flushing Meadows two years ago en route to the fourth of her five US Open titles.
Williams is chasing history at the US Open – despite her 17 Grand Slam titles, she has never won any Grand Slam title six times and has never achieved a hat-trick at any of them either.
The other women’s semifinal pits former world number one Caroline Wozniacki up against Chinese giant-killer Peng Shuai, with the Dane favoured to reach her first Grand Slam final since losing to Kim Clijsters in New York five years ago.
Both the women’s semifinals will be played on Saturday morning (AEST) with the men’s semifinals to take place the following day.
And so we are getting down to the business end of the final Grand Slam tournament for 2014. Will the favourites reign as expected, or is there at least one more upset coming?
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