Page 19 - AT SEPT 10

SPORTS A19
Thursday 10 September

U.S. OPEN

Continued from Page 17

I think I played a very good Simona Halep, of Romania, reacts after beating Victoria Azarenka, of Belarus, during a quarterfinal match at the U.S. Open tennis
match,” Federer said. “I tournament, Wednesday, Sept. 9, 2015, in New York.
felt the ball great.”
He won five consecutive Associated Press
titles at the U.S. Open from
2004-08, then lost in the match against me in Paris, a vast majority of specta- ta Vinci of Italy, and No. 2 vanced Wednesday by
2009 final — and hasn’t and I was very happy for tors to be pulling for Fe- Simona Halep of Romania beating two-time major
been that far again since. him that he went on to win derer on Friday, Wawrinka vs. No. 26 Flavia Pennetta champions. Halep rested
Forced to play in Louis Arm- the tournament. He de- replied: “Everybody loves of Italy. up and composed her-
strong Stadium because served it. He’s been such Roger. He’s the best player It’s the first time two Ital- self after the third-set rain
of two lengthy women’s a great player throughout ever.” ians reached the semifinals break and defeated Vic-
quarterfinals plus a 1 1/2- his career. He always im- In Friday’s other men’s semi- at the same major tourna- toria Azarenka 6-3, 4-6, 6-4,
hour rain delay earlier, proved a lot, kept on work- final, No. 1 Novak Djokovic ment. while Pennetta edged Kvi-
Wawrinka eliminated 15th- ing really hard,” Federer of Serbia will play defend- Halep and Pennetta ad- tova 4-6, 6-4, 6-2.q
seeded Kevin Anderson of said. ing champion Marin Cilic
South Africa 6-4, 6-4, 6-0. “Couldn’t be happier to of Croatia. Djokovic has
The match took 1 hour, play him here, to be quite won all 13 of their previous
47 minutes in all, but the honest,” Federer added. meetings.
third set, in particular, was “Two Swiss in the semis of The women’s semifinals are
about as lopsided as pos- the U.S. Open — it’s very Thursday night: No. 1 Ser-
sible: Wawrinka won 24 of cool for both of us.” ena Williams of the United
the 29 points. Asked whether he expects States vs. unseeded Rober-
Wawrinka solved the
6-foot-8 Anderson’s serve,
converting 5 of 8 break
points. Anderson had been
broken a total of four times
through his first four match-
es combined.
“For sure,” Wawrinka said,
“the best match of the
tournament for me.”
Most of his career, Wawrin-
ka has lived in the shad-
ow of his older — and far
more successful — coun-
tryman, Federer. While
Federer owns a record 17
Grand Slam singles titles,
Wawrinka didn’t break
through with his first until
the 2014 Australian Open.
But Wawrinka added No.
2 this year at the French
Open, beating Federer in
the quarterfinals along the
way.
Still, that was only Wawrin-
ka’s third victory in 19 ca-
reer matches against Fe-
derer.
“Stan played a wonderful