Impressive Nole continued his quest for sixth Grand Slam title with a 2-6, 6-1, 6-4, 6-2 victory over world no.5 Spaniard David Ferrer to make his third straight US Open final.
Ferrer was leading 5-2 in the first set on Saturday before play was suspended due to a severe weather warning for the New York area.
Match resumed at 11am local time on Sunday. The 30-year-old Spaniard held, causing the world no.2 to lose his first set at the major event.
Novak immediately gained control of the second set, racing to a 4-0 lead. Ferrer had triple break point opportunity in the fifth game, but the Serb won five straight points and saved another break point chance at 5-1 before clinching the set in 38 minutes.
Djokovic secured an early service break in the third set and held for 2-0. The Spaniard broke back in the fourth game, getting back on serve at 2-all, but the 25-year-old Belgrade native went up a break again in the seventh game for 4-3 lead. He won his next two service games, taking the set with an ace.
The momentum continued in the same direction in the fourth set. Ferrer was unable to get back into the match. Novak stormed to a double break lead and served it out 6-2.
“It’s definitely a huge relief to get through this match. He’s a great competitor,” Nole said of Ferrer. “I’m very happy to get to another Grand Slam final.”
Match statistics: aces (7-1), double faults (1-3), winners (34-24), unforced errors (31-39), total points won (107-86).
The final has been moved to Monday for the fifth straight year and will be played at 16.00 local time (22.00 CET).
Novak will meet the Olympic gold medalist and no.3 seed Andy Murray (GBR) in attempt to win the second crown at Flushing Meadows.
Last year Djokovic lifted his first US Open trophy beating Rafael Nadal in the finals.
The 2008 runner-up, Murray, won the first semi-final yesterday, beating Czech Tomas Berdych in four sets 5-7, 6-2, 6-1, 7-6.
Nole leads H2H against the British no.1 8-6; they have split their four meetings this year. Andy won their most recent encounter in the 2012 London Olympics semi-finals 7-5, 7-5.
“Most of the matches that we played against each other were very close, and only small margins decide the winner,” said Djokovic. “That’s something that is expected in a way, because we have similar games. We are big rivals and we have been in top of the men’s game for a long time, so we know each other really well. Tomorrow I guess there is no clear favourite.”
Photo: Getty Images
