2013 U.S. Open Preview: Day 13
The 2013 U.S. Open men’s semifinals are set for Saturday, Day 13 of the final Grand Slam of the year, featuring two familiar faces with the world’s top two players and former U.S. Open champions, the top-seeded Novak Djokovic and second-seeded Rafael Nadal. Sun is expected throughout Saturday with zero percent chance of rain as temps are not expected to get out of the 70s.
The other semifinalists are making their first final four showing at the Open, the eighth-seeded Richard Gasquet and ninth-seeded Stanislas Wawrinka. Gasquet is appearing in his second career Grand Slam semifinal (2007 Wimbledon) and Wawrinka in his first semifinal showing in a major.
Action begins at noon at Arthur Ashe Stadium, as Djokovic brings in a 12-2 career record against Wawrinka, winning the past 10 meetings. The 26-year-old Djokovic is trying to reach his fourth straight U.S. Open final and fifth overall. He’s only dropped one set thus far at this year’s Open and has been broken five times. Djokovic is appearing in his 14th straight major semifinal (seventh in a row at the U.S. Open), the second-longest in Grand Slam history (behind Federer’s 23). He is looking to advance to his third Grand Slam final of 2013 and 12th of his career (6-5).
On his road to the semis, Wawrinka has defeated the fifth-seeded Tomas Berdych and the number three seed, defending champion Andy Murray, in the last two rounds. Wawrinka, who was a quarterfinalist at the Open three years ago, has a career-high seven top 10 wins this season, all coming since April. His seven top 10 wins are the third-most on the ATP World Tour this season, behind Nadal with 15 and Djokovic with 10.
Immediately after the Djokovic-Wawrinka match, Nadal takes the court at Ashe, taking a 10-0 lifetime record into his semifinal match against Gasquet, the first Frenchman to reach the semifinals at the U.S. Open since Cedric Pioline in 1999.
Nadal is a career-best 20-0 on hard courts this season, and overall, an ATP World Tour best 58-3. He has advanced to the finals in 11 of 12 tournaments, winning nine titles. He has not lost serve in his five matches en route to his fifth U.S. Open semis, holding all 67 service games. Overall, Nadal’s serving streak is 82 games in a row. He hasn’t lost serve since the second set in the semifinals against Tomas Berdych at the ATP Masters 1000 Cincinnati on Aug. 17.
Gasquet comes into the semifinals after back-to-back five-set wins over the 10th-seeded Milos Raonic and fourth-seeded David Ferrer. It’s the first time since the 2005 U.S. Open that he has won two five-set matches in the same tournament, but first time in back-to-back fashion. Gasquet was a semifinalist at Wimbledon in 2007.
Also on the schedule Saturday, it’s the Women’s Doubles Finals, pitting the fifth-seeded duo of Andrea Hlavackova & Lucie Hradecka of the Czech Republic against the Australian team of Ashleigh Barty & Casey Dellacqua, the number eight seeds. On Friday, Hlavackova teamed with Max Mirnyi to capture the mixed-doubles title over American Abigail Spears & Santiago Gonzalez from Mexico.
Click here to view the full Day 13 Schedule of Play at the 2013 U.S. Open.
