Spain v Serbia - Take 2

Yes, for all of the fighting tennis produced by Spanish 4th seed David Ferrer, on his way to overcoming a defiant Janko Tipsarevic in the quarter finals at Flushing Meadows, another stumbling block from Serbia awaits him in the semis.  Not a minor obstacle this one - only the best hard courter and best returner in the world - Novak Djokovic.

For Ferrer to make his Grand Slam tournament final debut, he has to be the first player this year in New York to take a set off Novak, and then two more after that.  Of course this is possible, but given the sheer consistent brilliance of his racqetwork over the past week or so, Djokovic poses a challenge maybe too large for even the most resilient of players, and Ferrer has real claims to that title.

What enabled Ferrer to prevail in his quarter final was his consistency of weighted groundstroke when the match was in the balance.  While the Tipsarevic serve was on song, Ferrer was unable to dictate sufficient points and so he could only watch and hope for a decline in the effectiveness of the Serbian first delivery.  Once it occured, and it happened when Janko was serving for a 5-2 lead in the fifth set, the momentum turned for a final time, and control of the match stayed with David.  Ultimately it took a tie break to give Spain a presence in the semis, but even if it went the distance surely the same result would have been achieved.

Janko Tipsarevic can consider himself unlucky - he made the running for most of the match, and was only a few agonising minutes from the finishing line before the fatal stumble.  However, David Ferrer has a history of picking up the pieces of these stumbles and furnishing them into personal success.

He cannot rely on a similar stumble from the super slick Djokovic who played a fantastic match against Del Potro in his quarter final, where the standard of tennis grew throughout.  Straight sets belied the closeness of the contest.  If you were to rank the 4 quarter finalists from this part of the draw in terms of tennis played it would be Djokovic clearly atop, Del Potro clearly second, and a tie for third.  This is Ferrer's challenge - to raise his game sufficiently to give the world number 2 cause for worry, because victory will not be his by waiting for a drop in standard from Djokovic.