体坛英语新闻：Ferrer reaches U.S. Open semis through five-set epic

FLUSHING MEADOWS, New York, Sept. 6 (Xinhua) -- David Ferrer reached the semifinals of the U.S. Open for the second time, outlasting Janko Tipsarevic in a fifth-set tiebreaker to end a match that took 4 hours, 31 minutes to complete.

Ferrer, the No. 4 seed from Spain, beat the No. 8 seed from Serbia 6-3, 6-7 (5), 2-6, 6-3, 7-6 (4). The Spaniard will take on defending champion Novak Djokovic of Serbia or 2009 winner Juan Martin Del Potro of Argentina for a spot in his first Grand Slam final.

"It was an amazing match," Ferrer said. "I don't have words to explain what happened."

Momentum shifted several times during the match, with Tipsarevic hitting 60 winners compared with 49 for Ferrer. The Serb committed more unforced errors, 14 more than his opponent and also 11 more forced errors over Ferrer's 55.

Tipsarevic, 28, who held a 3-0 fifth-set lead, lost his footing and fell hard on his left hip and arm to end the sixth game of the final set up 4-2. Ferrer then broke Tipsarevic's serve and evened the match, eventually forcing the decisive tiebreaker.

Ferrer, 30, also reached the 2007 U.S. Open semifinals, losing to Djokovic, and was among the final four at the French Open this year and Australian Open in 2011.

Tipsarevic broke first at the first set, but withered then to see two serve breaks from Ferrer, losing the opening set 6-3. The two clung to serves stringently and pushed the set to tiebreak, in which Tipsarevic won by 7-5.

Tipsarevic followed up strong in the third set to break Ferrer twice and snatch an easy 6-2 victory. Ferrer evened the set score after he successfully found the break point in the eighth game taking advantage of a wide volley from Tipsarevic to end 22-shot rally and grabbed it after Tipsarevic hit the net. Ferrer served straight four points to clinch the set 6-4.

Djokovic, who has a 5-2 career record against Del Potro, is undefeated in 16 previous U.S. Open matches against lower seeds. A 17th such win would put him into his sixth straight semifinal, breaking a tie with John McEnroe for fourth in consecutive U.S. Open semifinals.

It also would tie Djokovic with Rod Laver and Ivan Lendl for second place with 10 straight Grand Slam semifinals. Roger Federer, the No. 1 seed who was beaten last night by Tomas Berdych, holds the record of 23.

In the mixed-doubles final, Ekaterina Makarova of Russia and Bruno Soares of Brazil beat the No. 4 seeds, Kveta Peschke of the Czech Republic and Marcin Matkowski of Poland, 6-7 (8-10), 6-1, 12-10 (tiebreak). The third set in mixed doubles is a super-tiebreaker, played to at least 10 points with a two-point winning margin.

The day 11 night session began with a doubles exhibition as John McEnroe, a four-time U.S. Open champion, and actor Adam Sandler take on Jim Courier, the U.S. Davis Cup captain, and actor Kevin James.