NEW YORK – Solving the swirling winds in Arthur Ashe Stadium, Serena Williams blew past Ana Ivanovic 6-3 6-4 Monday to grab a spot in the quarterfinals of the US Open.
“It was crazy,” Williams said of the blustery conditions that affected play. “I didn’t even go for winners at any point. I just tried to get it over because it was so windy.”
Seeking her fourth US Open women’s singles title, Williams will next take on 17th-seeded Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova of Russia, who upset seventh-seeded Francesca Schiavone of Italy 5-7 6-3 6-3.
In early men’s singles play, top-ranked Novak Djokovic survived a gritty performance by Russian Alexandr Dolgopolov to advance to a quarterfinal battle against his good friend and fellow Serb, Janko Tipsarevic, a 7-5 6-7 (3) 7-5 6-2 winner over Juan Carlos Ferrero of Spain.
“It means there’s going to be at least one Serbian in the semifinals, which is great for our country,” Djokovic said.
Rain, heavy at times, had been forecast for New York City. The rain stayed away throughout the day, but blustery winds swept through the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, affecting ground strokes and especially the toss for the serve.
“It was really gusty out there, and in the wind it’s always gonna be even tougher,” Ivanovic said. “In those kinds of conditions serve is the shot that it’s gonna go away from both players. It did a bit. My serve broke down little more than hers did.”
Williams crushed nine aces and had just one double-fault. Ivanovic, who struggled the entire match with her service toss, hit three aces but served up eight doubles.
Because she missed 11 months with injury and illness, Williams’ ranking plummeting from No. 1 in the world to around 160. Since returning to play, Williams won two hard court tournaments this summer to raise her WTA ranking to 29th in the world. She was seeded 28th in this, the year’s final Grand Slam tournament, because of the withdrawal of defending champion Kim Clijsters.
Still, Williams is considered a heavy favorite to increase her Grand Slam tournament title count to 14, the most of any active woman and sixth all-time, in Saturday’s final.
Williams jumped out to a 3-0 lead to begin the fourth-round battle, breaking Ivanovic in the second game. But Ivanovic, the 2008 French Open winner, broke back from deuce in the fifth game to put the set back on serve.
When the Serb held at 30 in the next game, she had pulled even at 3-3.
With William serving, Ivanovic moved to break point at 30-40. When Williams won the next point to pull to deuce, she screamed, “C’mon.”
She did just that, beginning a five-game spurt to grab the opening set and take a 3-0 advantage in the second.
Ivanovic refused to go away, but Williams had too much firepower and dominated the rest of the way.
“As I said even before the match I think she’s the favorite for the tournament,” Ivanovic said of Williams. “She’s been playing really well and it’s gonna be tough, you know. But, the conditions are different … so you have to raise your level. She’s doing that, so I think she has a good chance.”
Djokovic had all he could handle in the opening set with his Russian opponent. But once he captured the opening set tiebreak 16-14 on his sixth set point, it was all downhill to his quarterfinal berth.
“Winning it was very important,” Djokovic said of the tiebreak. “That was probably the turning point. After that it was a good performance.”
Using slices and moving Djokovic from side to side, Dolgopolov threatened to take the opening set and even had set points in the tiebreak. But after finally prevailing in the tiebreak, Djokovic rolled to victory.
“He played a lot of low balls, slices. … I was confused on the court,” the winner said. “But it was really exciting.”
Now he’s looking forward to playing his Davis Cup teammate.
“I think this is the first time I play Janko in a grand slam,” he said. “We are great friends. It’s not going to be easy to play him, but look, it’s the quarterfinals and we both want to win.”