Novak Djokovic inched a little closer to history on Wednesday night in Arthur Ashe Stadium, where the top seed and world No. 1 defeated Italy’s Matteo Berrettini, 5-7, 6-2, 6-2, 6-3, to advance to the 12th US Open semifinal of his career.
The No. 1. seed Novak Djokovic entered the main stage at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center on Day 10 for the last match of the evening.
No. 6 Matteo Berrettini and top seed Novak Djokovic watched the coin toss.
“[He’s the] hammer of tennis,” Novak Djokovic said of Matteo Berrettini. “Next to [Juan Martin] del Potro, probably the hardest hitter of serve and forehand."
This is the third surface Novak Djokovic and Matteo Berrettini have played each other on this year—a rematch of the Roland Garros quarterfinals and the Wimbledon final. Berrettini fell to 0-4 against Djokovic and remains winless (0-6) against Top 10 competition at the majors.
Matteo Berrettini, 25, did his best to emulate another Italian, Roberta Vinci, who on this same court in 2015 halted American Serena Williams’ attempt at the calendar-year Slam with arguably the greatest upset in US Open history.
Novak Djokovic had dropped the opening set in each of his last two matches, so there was no sign of panic when the three-time champion again found himself down a set on Day 10.
Novak Djokovic will have an opportunity to avenge his loss to Alexander Zverev at the Summer Games when he faces the fourth seed in the semifinals. The Serb was eying the so-called Golden Slam—all four majors plus Olympic gold—but fell to the German in the semis in Tokyo, 1-6, 6-3, 6-1.
“Matteo is a terrific player, an established Top 10 player. Every time we face each other, it’s always a close battle. It wasn’t any different tonight," Novak Djokovic said on court after the win.
"When I lost the first set, I managed to forget about it, kind of be in the moment. I was dialed in, locked in from the beginning of the second set," Novak Djokovic said, "I put my tennis to a different level. It’s been the best three sets I’ve played in the tournament so far, for sure.”
