By Richard Pagliaro | Friday, August 21, 2015
Novak Djokovic won nine of the final 10 games dismissing Stan Wawrinka, 6-4, 6-1, to surge into the Cincinnati semifinals for the fifth time.
Photo credit: Western & Southern Open
Following a drop shot forward, Novak Djokovic was nose-to-nose at net with the man who trampled over his Roland Garros dream and denied him the career Grand Slam.
Rather than trying to strong-arm revenge, the world No. 1 teased Stan Wawrinka with a drop shot and tormented him with soft touch to win that net exchange.
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When he wasn't making mischief, Djokovic spent the day shredding Wawrinka's serve. The top seed converted all four break points dispensing a 6-4, 6-1 shellacking of the Swiss to surge into the Cincinnati final four for the fifth time.
"It was the best performance I had so far this week," Djokovic told the media afterward. "Came at the right time against one of my biggest rivals and the guy I lost to the last time we played in the finals of French Open.So obviously I approached this match very seriously in trying to prepare myself and get myself in a good position to win. That's what I have done. I served very well for a set and a half."
Wawrinka battered down Djokovic's defense with some ballistic shot-making on the red clay of Paris. In today's rematch on the blue hard court, Djokovic beat Wawrinka with defense, offense, on serve (68 percent, winning 10 of 14 second-serve points), return and pretty much every front.
Drained by successive three-set encounters against Borna Coric and Ivo Karlovic (a triple tie break test that ended on an Ivo double fault), Stan said he came up a bit flat at times today.
"I think maybe I'm a little bit empty mentally to stay at my top," Wawrinka said. "I'm generally happy with my tournament. I know where I am. There is a lot of positive to take from this week winning two tough match without playing my best tennis, fighting, staying there. I think my level is there. I know and I can see where I am. I'm very happy with the way and what I did this week. I'm excited for the US Open."
Continuing his quest to claim his first Cincinnati title and become the first man to complete the career Masters sweep and win all nine Masters 1000 titles, Djokovic will play Alexandr Dolgopolov for a place in the final. The qualifier continued a confident run defeating sixth-seeded Tomas Berdych, 6-4, 6-2, in 75 minutes. Dolgopolov won 22 of 24 points played on his first serve.
Earlier this season, the then 62nd-ranked Dolgopolov nearly knocked Novak out of Miami before the No. 1 rallied for a 6-7 (3), 7-5, 6-0 victory.
A day after a distracted Djokovic rallied from 0-3 down in the third set to reel off six straight games in defeating David Goffin, he cut quite a different figure facing a familiar nemesis.
Perhaps it was the fact Wawrinka had split two of their last four meetings with a pair or rousing major wins or maybe playing in the late-morning heat Djokovic was in no mood for benevolence.
He took his game to places Wawrinka couldn't match. Holding at love for 4-all, Djokovic reeled off nine of the next 10 games to send the fifth seed packing for the 18th time in 22 meetings.
Wawrinka ignited the blow-out playing a horrific ninth game.
Anticipating correctly, Djokovic picked off a pass with a sliding forehand stab volley to extend the point. Wawrinka flattened a backhand volley into net as the top seed gained double set point. Djokovic drilled a twisting serve, closing the 34-minute first set that was high quality tennis apart from Wawrinka's implosion in the ninth game.
The sliding retrievals that make Djokovic's defense so oppressive were on display inside the court at times today as the Serbian tried to finish forward. Djokovic won nine of 11 trips to net.
Sometimes ths scrambling frustrated Wawrinka into over-playing. Djokovic extended the point with some elastic gets as Wawrinka, who blew opportunities to end the point earlier with a high backhand volley and smash, mangled a routine high forehand volley for 30-all. Slapping successive shots into net, the Swiss donated the break to open the second set.
Wawrinka plays flatter on every shot, Djokovic knows it and exploited the margins in his favor. Wawrinka nearly doubled the top seed in errors: 33 to 16.
"He's not playing his best, but he's playing well enough to be there, for sure," Wawrinka said of Djokovic. "As you can see this year he has amazing year again. He's losing only few matches. He already won two Grand Slam. He's there winning almost everything. So this guy, even when he's not playing his best, he can beat me the way he did today."
Attention to detail was evident as Djokovic did a good job getting down low using his legs to power through shots. He dug in on the baseline and hammered drives into opposite corners drawing his third break point. Wawrinka's accuracy did not meet his ambition; he scattered an inside-out forehand as Djokovic broke for the third time in a row.
The demands Djokovic places on himself are clear in most matches. Even while holding for 4-0, he shook his head venting a bit despite the thorough dissection of the man who denied him the career Grand Slam.
Hall of Fame Andre Agassi has often said a turning point in his career came when he realized "I don't have to be the best in the world every match, I just have to be better than the other guy that day."
Djokovic demands his best each time out and isn't shy about showing his disgust when it eludes him. In this match, the venting helped him in that one he released the frustration, he reset and returned right back to the job at hand.
"I felt like today, as well, that the baseline game was much more solid, more controlled," Djokovic said. "Whenever I needed to kind of hit the ball and take over the control of the rally, I have done so. It's just, overall, from every aspect of my game was a much better performance than it was in first matches."
Transforming a duel into demolition, Djokovic closed in 63 minutes signing the court-side camera lens "I love Pink!"
The Wimbledon champion is one win removed from his 10th straight final. The last man to reel off 10 or more finals to start a season was Roger Federer, who started the 2006 season contesting 11 straight finals, a streak that reached 17 over two seasons.