Novak Djokovic walks on to court with an air of superiority that seems like a birthright. He knows his place in the tennis hierarchy. But on Wednesday, he staggered ever so slightly. He almost fell over, spun around uncontrollably and even slipped on the sweat of his opponent before winning 6-3, 6-4, 6-4 against this year’s ultimate underdog John Millman.
‘Millmania’ is over, but not before entertaining the Arthur Ashe Stadium crowd for another night. If the stadium reverberated under the chants of “Come on, Roger!” two days back, cries of “Aussie! Aussie! Aussie! Oi, oi oi!” rent the air on Wednesday. It was as if all of the Australian community in Manhattan had congregated to rally behind their breakthrough man.
Brilliant game
And he gave them enough reasons to cheer. The final scoreline utterly belies what actually happened on court. Millman played magnificently: matching forehand to forehand, running down shots that only Djokovic could catch, and often wrong-footing him. On two occasions, Millman raced back from the net to deep behind the baseline to make retrievals that shocked Djokovic, who blew the point both times.
When Djokovic broke for the second time, the audience reacted with a polite, appreciative smattering of an applause. When Millman barely held serve after a gruelling 20-minute game, the deafening roar could’ve brought the roof down.
But there’s only so much you can do against Djokovic, who plays his best even when he’s not feeling his best. “It is like trying to beat a brick wall,” Millman said after his loss.
Djokovic did everything just slightly better: he blunted Millman’s cross-court forehand during crucial moments. If they rose high, he sped through the court. When Millman stepped back, Djokovic pushed in.
Both players were struggling in the heat, with Millman even having to request to go off court at 2-2 in the second set to change his sweat-soaked outfit. That break seemed to give Djokovic some much-needed rest and he sat down on his sideline bench without a shirt on and cooled off. As play resumed, so did Djokovic’s dominance and Millman literally had the air sucked out of him, this time for reasons not the weather.
He showed a resemblance of a fight in the third set, breaking Djokovic who double-faulted on the back of two serve-time violations. But order was quickly restored when the Serb broke back in the match’s penultimate game and then served out the victory at love.
Djokovic has now won all 11 of his quarterfinal matches in New York. He will meet Kei Nishikori, who defeated his 2014 final opponent Marin Cilic 2-6, 6-4, 7-6(5), 4-6, 6-4, in the semifinals on Friday.
A Japanese first
Nishikori along with Naomi Osaka became the first Japanese man and woman to reach the semifinals of the same Grand Slam.
In the other quarterfinal clash on Ashe, American Madison Keys, the runner-up at last year’s U.S Open, reached her third semifinal in the last five Grand Slams, defeating Spain’s Carla Suarez Navarro 6-4, 6-3.
