NEW YORK — (AP) — Novak Djokovic took a two-set lead against Taylor Fritz, an opponent he always beats, to close in on the semifinals, a round he often reaches at the U.S. Open, and marked the occasion by blowing kisses to those in Tuesday night's crowd pulling for the last American man in the field.
That was just a taste of the back-and-forth between Djokovic and some of the folks in the Arthur Ashe Stadium seats, and there was still work that remained, but he would finish off a 6-3, 7-5, 3-6, 6-4 victory. Djokovic improved to 11-0 against 2024 runner-up Fritz and reached a record-extending 53rd Grand Slam semifinal, a total that includes a record-tying 14 at Flushing Meadows.
“I was just trying to survive,” Djokovic said. “It's one of those days where you just have to grind.”
He needed three match points to end it, and was leaning over, hands on knees, after the first two resulted in long rallies that went Fritz's way. But on the last, the contest ended anticlimactically with a double-fault by No. 4-seeded Fritz, whose exit means the U.S. drought will continue without a male singles champion at any major since 2003, when Andy Roddick won in New York.
“At the end of the day, that’s one of the things that makes the great players great,” Fritz said about Djokovic. “They win the big points.”
On Friday, Djokovic will play in his fourth Slam semifinal of the season and take on five-time major champion Carlos Alcaraz, who hasn't dropped a set in the tournament. He was a 6-4, 6-2, 6-4 winner against No. 20 Jiri Lehecka earlier Tuesday.
Djokovic leads No. 2 seed Alcaraz 5-3 head-to-head, winning their two most recent matchups — in the Australian Open quarterfinals this January and in the final at the Paris Olympics last year, when the Serbian finally fulfilled his wish to win a gold medal for his country.
The last two men's quarterfinals are Wednesday: Alex de Minaur vs. Felix Auger-Aliassime, and defending champion Jannik Sinner vs. Lorenzo Musetti in an all-Italian matchup at night.
On Tuesday night, both men were dressed entirely in black — shirts, shorts, socks and shoes. Even Djokovic’s wrist bands were black, as was Fritz’s headband, which he had on wrong at the start, so the white lettering of his clothing sponsor’s name was upside-down until he made a change after the second set.
If the players' get-ups looked alike, that's where the similarities stopped. Djokovic, who has won four of his 24 major championships at the U.S. Open, most recently in 2023, did what he usually does to Fritz — and, to be fair, nearly everyone else — which is to say: return masterfully, control the longest points and serve to all the right spots, particularly in the clutch.
In sum, the 38-year-old Djokovic was generally a step, and a thought, or two ahead of the 27-year-old Fritz, whose serve got better over the last two sets.
Djokovic won 25 of the 42 points that lasted at least nine strokes. He saved 11 of the 13 break chances he faced. And he won 10 of the 11 points when he serve-and-volleyed.
Fritz came out a bit shaky. Not his best serving. Not his best groundstrokes. Maybe it was the foe and their one-sided history. Maybe it was the setting, the stage, the stakes.
Maybe it was the earlier-than-originally-planned start, on account of the cancellation of the women's quarterfinal between Aryna Sabalenka and Marketa Vondrousova, who withdrew with a knee iniury.
Djokovic stole Fritz’s initial service game on the way to a 3-0 lead that soon was a two-set advantage. Fritz worked his way into the match and made things more interesting, but never moved ahead.
Along the way, Djokovic got into it with the spectators backing his opponent, although it’s worth nothing there were plenty supporting the man who’s spent more time at No. 1 than anyone in tennis history, too.
Still, there were those applauding and cheering faults by Djokovic, considered a no-no in tennis.
It reached a head in the third set, when the fault celebrations grew more raucous as the clock passed 10:30 p.m. Djokovic asked chair umpire Damian Dumusois, “What are you going to do?” and then mockingly repeated the words the official kept saying in an unsuccessful attempt to settle the interruptions, “Thank you. Please. Thank you. Please.”
Soon, Fritz was smacking a forehand winner to break for a 3-1 lead in that set, one he would take.
But Djokovic came through when it mattered most.
“He served better. He made a lot less mistakes,” Fritz said. “He played better in the fourth.”
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Howard Fendrich has been the AP's tennis writer since 2002. Find his stories here: https://apnews.com/author/howard-fendrich. More AP tennis: https://apnews.com/hub/tennis
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