Tennis News

Roger Federer continues the search for No.18 when he takes on Richard Gasquet in Wednesday night’s quarter-final, the 46th Grand Slam QF of his illustrious career. An impressive display against John Isner saw the current No.2 win in straight sets in front of the Arthur Ashe night crowd. Federer v Gasquet Head to Head stands at 14-2.

Federer had come into the tournament with a lengthy run of consecutive holds but saw that come to an end in round three against Philipp Kohlschreiber when the German broke twice in a straight sets loss. However, he would not be broken by Isner in five attempts the next round – although Isner’s returning level is probably not going to help give much away when analysing how well Federer is serving.

Isner was his usually stern self on serve in that match, desperately clinging on to his own record of consecutive holds that spanned back to last year’s tournament. It seemed on the cards that Isner might once more exit in a match he wasn’t broken in but Federer finally broke through in the last game of a 7-6 7-6 7-5 victory. Even more impressively, the first set 7-0 tiebreak was the first such Isner had lost in his career.

Gasquet’s failure to win fourth round matches at grand slams had become almost legendary but he has had a change of fortunes recently, winning three of his last four to improve that record to 4-16. Last night’s victory over Tomas Berdych was his highest ranking win of the four and one that came as somewhat of a surprise after the Czech had won their last three meetings.

With a 2-14 career record against Federer, one of which was their very first meeting, it doesn’t look too promising for Gasquet who last won in 2011 and failed to win a set in each of their last six matches. Federer will be buoyed by the absence of Andy Murray from the quarter final stage and should look to take advantage to make his first US Open final since 2009.

After being surprisingly pushed to four sets in the last round by Roberto Bautista Agut, Novak Djokovic will be hoping for a stress free outing in the quarter-finals when he takes on Feliciano Lopez. 

Looking for his third slam of the year and his first US Open title since 2011, Djokovic had a straight forward opening three rounds winning all three matches without dropping a set. He struggled at times during his win over Bautista Agut, especially in the second set when the Spaniard played some inspired tennis to win the set from a break down and outplayed Djokovic from the back of the court during his hot streak.

Not so strong from the baseline, Lopez and his serve and volley game offers a completely different test for Djokovic who has not played someone you would consider an above average server so far in his run. After a tough five setter against Mardy Fish in round two, Lopez picked up two impressive scalps to find his way to the quarter finals. Milos Raonic was sent packing in straight sets and Fabio Fognini suffered the same fate as the Italian could not back up his stunning victory over Rafael Nadal.

Lopez has struggled with Djokovic in the past, winning just one set in five matches – the most recent of which was in 2012. Given Lopez’s failure to trouble a far inferior version of Djokovic, it seems unlikely that he will have much luck here.

Prediction – Djokovic to win in straight sets.

After his 2014 US Open title run was largely written off as a fluke, Marin Cilic has been looking to silence the doubters and is half way to defending his title. However, the matches will get much tougher from here on as he takes on Jo-Wilfried Tsonga next, with Novak Djokovic likely awaiting in the semi-finals for the winner.

Cilic defeated Kei Nishikori in last year’s final and a quarter-final rematch was largely expected after the pair were drawn in the same quarter. However, Nishikori’s round one loss opened up the draw for someone to make a run and it was Jo Wilfried Tsonga that took advantage. The Frenchman has not been broken all tournament or lost a set on his way to the quarter-finals thanks to some impressive serving while he has lost 5 or more games in a set just once of the 12 possible times.

Cilic’s journey to the quarter-finals hasn’t been as smooth, most notably being taken to five sets by Mikhail Kukushkin who had previously defeated Dimitrov in the tournament. Aside from a mid second set blip, Cilic was solid in a four set victory over Jeremy Chardy in the previous round. The win secured Cilic’s second grand slam quarter-final running after he did the same at Wimbledon.

With Tsonga in such imperious serving form, he has to be considered the early favourite to win the match. The dominant form that saw Cilic storm to the title last year is not to be seen while Tsonga is a step up from Chardy. Cilic has taken the last three matches that these two have played, two of which were on hard courts, to lead the head to head 4-3.