NEW YORK (AP)—Novak Djokovic opened his fourth-round match with a thrilling 16-14 first-set tiebreaker over No. 22 Alexandr Dolgopolov and things got easier from there in a 7-6 (14), 6-4, 6-2 victory at the U.S. Open on Monday.
Djokovic, who racked up his 61st win in 63 matches this year, will face fellow Serb Janko Tipsarevic in the quarterfinals as he seeks his first title at Flushing Meadows.
“This is one of the longest tiebreaks I ever played,” Djokovic said. “It was certainly exciting to be part of it. But, you know, I knew that I needed to win that set.”
Djokovic saved four set points and finally closed out the set on his sixth chance. When Dolgopolov missed a forehand to give Djokovic the set, Djokovic pumped his fist and put his hands to his ears to take in the applause from the fans at Louis Armstrong Stadium, which sees fewer and fewer headliners as the tournament progresses and the big matches move into Ashe.
“It was a packed stadium. It was a different experience because I haven’t played on that court for a while,” Djokovic said.
Later, eighth-seeded Mardy Fish of the United States lost to 11th-seeded Jo-Wilfried Tsonga of France 6-4, 6-7 (5), 3-6, 6-4, 6-2.
In the women’s tournament, Serena Williams fought off the wind, along with brief flurries of effectiveness from her opponent, to advance to the quarterfinals with a 6-3, 6-4 victory over Ana Ivanovic.
Williams closed out the match with four straight serves that Ivanovic couldn’t get back—clocked at between 99 and 111 mph in a blustery Arthur Ashe Stadium that had both players fighting with their tosses and topspin all day.
“I didn’t even go for winners at any point,” said Williams, who hit only 16. “I just tried to get it over because it was so windy. It was definitely tough.”
Top-ranked Caroline Wozniacki trailed by a set and 4-1 in the second before coming back to beat 2004 champion Svetlana Kuznetsova 6-7 (6), 7-5, 6-1 in a night match.
Wozniacki turned things around thanks to a combination of her own increasingly aggressive play and Kuznetsova’s increased mistakes. Kuznetsova’s 40-20 edge in winners was rendered meaningless by her 78 unforced errors, 52 more than Wozniacki.
Their match lasted 3 hours, 2 minutes and finished at 11:29 p.m., delaying the start of Federer-Monaco.
Forty minutes before it ended, Wozniacki’s boyfriend, U.S. Open men’s golf champion Rory McIlory, tweeted: “COME ON!!!!!!”
“I know Rory was watching, so I think I kept him up for quite some time. I feel a bit guilty,” Wozniacki said. “Now he can sleep well because I won.”
She reeled off 12 of the last 14 games by getting slightly more aggressive— and by benefiting from all of Kuznetsova’s unforced errors, 78 in all.
Even facing such a big deficit, Wozniacki said she told herself, “OK, I can do this. I can still fight back.”
She added: “I know that I’m in good shape. I can play out there for five hours if I have to.”
The 21-year-old Wozniacki, the 2009 runner-up at the U.S. Open, has been ranked No. 1 for all but one week since last October but is still seeking her first major championship.
She now faces No. 10 Andrea Petkovic of Germany, who eliminated 76th-ranked Carla Suarez Navarro of Spain 6-1, 6-4.
“After last year’s breakthrough here, when I reached fourth round, my confidence changed completely. I just started believing in myself, (that) I could reach the second weeks of Grand Slams,” Petkovic said. “Before, I was just playing and seeing what happens.”
Seeded only 28th after missing big chunks of the last two years with injuries to her foot, Williams improved to 16-0 this year on hardcourt. She has yet to drop a set at the U.S. Open and now finds herself in her first Grand Slam quarterfinal since last year at Wimbledon, when she won her 13th major title.
With each win at Flushing Meadows, she makes a stronger case that the “28” before her name at this tournament is only a number. When healthy, she might be the best in the world.
“I don’t know if I’m the best or not,” she said. “I believe I am and I think a lot of other girls, women in the locker room, believe they are, too, as they should. I don’t think anyone should go out and say that they’re not.”
The 16th-seeded Ivanovic, the 2008 French Open champion and a one-time world No. 1, came in on a rebound after a slide down the rankings into the 60s. At times against Williams, flashes of the old Ivanovic showed, especially when she drew back to 3-3 in the first set after dropping the first three games in eight minutes.
Taking the ball early, unafraid to step inside the baseline to return Williams’ second serves, Ivanovic was the aggressor during that portion and in parts of the second set when she tried, unsuccessfully, to make up the break she lost in the first game.
But she couldn’t overcome eight double faults, including three while serving at 3-4 in the first set, and didn’t have an answer for Williams who was less aggressive (16 winners to 20 for Ivanovic), but more consistent (14 unforced errors to 29) and also had more bite on her serve (nine aces).
“My serve broke down a little more than hers,” Ivanovic said. “I still created lots of opportunities and I felt I was stepping up a lot and I just felt that was the biggest difference today.”
Next up for Williams is No. 17 Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, who made it to her second Grand Slam quarterfinal with a 5-7, 6-3, 6-4 win over former French Open champion Francesca Schiavone.
In other early play, 20th-seeded Tipsarevic outlasted 2003 French champion Juan Carlos Ferrero 7-5, 5-7, 7-5, 6-2 in a match that took 3 hours, 43 minutes.
Playing later Monday was No. 3 Roger Federer.