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SPORTS Friday 6 September 2019

1 of Big 3 left: Nadal to face Berrettini in U.S. Open semis

By HOWARD FENDRICH five-hour final to Djokovic in quite sudden: He used to
AP Tennis Writer a fifth-set tiebreaker. be ranked No. 3 but has
NEW YORK (AP) — Rafael Each of the past 11 majors struggled with injuries and
Nadal is as gracious and has been won by one of inconsistency.
complimentary as can be that trio. “The past six, seven months
whenever discussing an If anyone other than Nadal have been pretty rough for
upcoming foe, so it came ends up holding the trophy me. But I had somebody to
as no surprise to hear him Sunday, it would be the first lean on — my friends, my
talk up the player he’ll face time since Marin Cilic at the family. I kept on believing
in the U.S. Open semifinals 2014 U.S. Open that there is again in the work, the re-
Friday, 23-year-old Matteo a first-time Slam champion. hab I had to put behind my
Berrettini of Italy. One of these really is not shoulder, the exercise, the
“Nice guy. Young, with like the others. practice, fixing up the rack-
very good potential,” Nad- Neither Berrettini, seeded et a little bit. There were so
al said. “He’s in the semifi- 24th, nor Medvedev had many things I had to ad-
nals of a Grand Slam, so ever even reached a major just in such a small, but big, Rafael Nadal, of Spain, hits a return to Diego Schwartzman,
he’s playing great.” quarterfinal until this week. period of time,” Dimitrov of Argentina, during the quarterfinals of the U.S. Open tennis
After all, Nadal explained, Dimitrov, the lowest-ranked said. “Next thing you know, tournament Wednesday, Sept. 4, 2019, in New York.
“You can’t expect an easy semifinalist at Flushing you’re almost (at the) end Associated Press
opponent. You can’t ex- Meadows since a 39-year- of the year, you have a re- that helped him make it to Week 2 debut at a major,
pect an easy match. I real- old Jimmy Connors was sult like that. It’s pretty spe- the title matches at three then ran up against Feder-
ly believe that if you want outside the top 150 in 1991, cial to me.” hard-court tuneups head- er.
to win tournaments, you is 0-2 in past trips to the Medvedev leads the tour in ing to New York. Now he takes on Nadal,
need to go through tough semifinals at Grand Slam wins this season and in ap- Berrettini saved match someone Berrettini called
opponents.” tournaments. pearances in tournament points in the third round “the greatest fighter ever in
In this instance, though, the Dimitrov’s resurgence is finals. He has a varied style at Wimbledon to earn his this sport.”q
No. 2-seeded Nadal will
not need to go through the
toughest ones of all. That’s
because he is the lone
member of the Big Three
still standing.
Novak Djokovic, the de-
fending champion and
No. 1 seed, stopped play-
ing while way behind in his
fourth-round match, citing
a painful left shoulder.
Roger Federer, the No.
3 seed and owner of 20
Grand Slam titles, finished
his five-set loss to 78th-
ranked Grigor Dimitrov in
the quarterfinals, but was
clearly compromised by a
problem in his upper back.
Win two more matches
— against No. 24 Berret-
tini first, then against ei-
ther Dimitrov or No. 5 seed
Daniil Medvedev in the
final — and Nadal would
raise his major champion-
ships total to 19. That would
allow him to move within
one trophy of Federer’s
record for men, and with
time on his side: Nadal is
33; Federer is 38.
Nadal made it to the semi-
finals at all four Slams in
2019. His lone title from
those tournaments came
at the French Open, where
he defeated Federer but
did not play Djokovic. At
the Australian Open in Jan-
uary, Nadal lost in the final
to Djokovic. At Wimbledon
in July, Nadal lost in the
semifinals to Federer, who
went on to lose a nearly